Madeleine Dickens (Argus October 22) claims that involving the private sector is bad for the National Health Service.

No party is advocating that health care should not be free at the point of service.

The NHS is NOT the envy of the world! – The French can probably claim that honour.

The French system involves the private sector yet it is still free to the patient.

The British model of healthcare has not been copied anywhere in the world.

Since its creation the Labour Party has claimed that any Conservative attempt at reform is part of a Tory master plan to kill it!

This is scaremongering. Trade unions will always oppose change if it involves rationalisation.

In real terms the Thatcher government poured more cash into healthcare than any previous administration.

There will always be problems with healthcare. Costs will escalate as new treatments become available. People are living longer.

A huge organisation like the NHS should be overhauled every generation. A review should have taken place under the Wilson government in the mid sixties.

Subsequent reviews should have taken place in the early Eighties and early this century.

This week NHS England, the body in charge of the health service in England, stated its forecast for the next decade of healthcare.

The result of the above is that healthcare is lumbering along top heavy with bureauracy.

The NHS must be overhauled regularly. Deadwood must be cleared and service geared to a changing world. This includes embracing the private sector!

Richard J. Szypulski Lavender Street Brighton