SIR – I have read that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has said to the medical profession – ie the NHS – “Reform or die”.

This is not what he really means. What he means is, “Let me put these changes into effect, as I am going to do them anyway, so my rich friends in the medical business profession can hive off the more lucrative parts of the health industry and make themselves millionaires.”

This is what is meant by allowing the privatisation of the NHS. He makes out that there is a shortfall in the funding to be addressed. There has always been a shortfall, there always will be one, and the taxpayer picks it up. The point is they pick up the shortfall, not the profits of the private sector, but this is what they will be doing.

The Conservatives have learned nothing in the last 30-odd years. Privatisation is not, and never has been, the answer.

Look at Southern Cross today. If the Government does not bail them out, all the subsequent costs will fall upon the taxpayer, but worse is the stress on the elderly.

No, Andrew Lansley is a politician with a hidden agenda, and if you fall for it, then you deserve all you are not going to get.

A G Goldsbrough, Leeds Road, Ilkley