I AM writing to express my concern at the creeping and insidious privatisation of NHS services in Herefordshire. The proposed abolition of Herefordshire PCT can only accelerate this process by removing both local management and commissioning of services.

The new County Hospital in Hereford is not owned by the NHS. Compared to the previous NHS hospitals it has many fewer beds and is now clearly struggling to meet local demand and balance its books. NHS inpatient healthcare in Kington and Ledbury has been completely privatised.

If this is what the people of Hereford-shire want and they are happy for the care assistants looking after their sick and elderly relatives to be paid less than supermarket shelf-stackers, then so be it. But I suspect the truth is that most people don't even know what is happening, such is the lack of local accountability in the NHS.

It seems extraordinary that in a supposed democracy we all sit back in silent ignorance while our most treasured national asset is given away. I don't remember anything in the Labour Party's manifesto about privatising the NHS. But that is exactly what is happening in Herefordshire - stealthily, insidiously and dishonestly. It must be stopped before it's too late.

ANDREW LEITCH, Churchill Meadow, Ledbury.