Letters: The way ahead for the NHS at 60

The way ahead for the NHS at 60 Polly Toynbee (For all the hyperbole, Bevan would have approved of this, July 1) rightly points to Nye Bevan's realism over an NHS where "expectations will always exceed capacity". He would not have approved of the waves of managerialism and market values that have dogged its last 25 years. But despite the Conservatives' introduction of the internal market in the 1990s, the care ethos has survived, and it is still free. The privatisation agenda would have disturbed his socialism - the cheap accounting trick of the private finance initiative and the concept of selling heath services for the profit of share-holders would have him ranting on the parliamentary benches. The "choice" agenda, however, could break the last goodwill strand that keeps the service going. Intuition tells us that "choice"... [read full story]