I WAS very alarmed to read in the Oxford Mail (April 19) that the newly elected chair of the Oxfordshire GP Consortium, Dr Stephen Richards, thinks that the proposed NHS reforms will not be as drastic as feared.

This demonstrates a serious misunderstanding of the proposed legislation in the Health and Social Care Bill, which is essentially a roadmap for an increasingly marketised and privatised NHS.

In fact, an article in the British Medical Journal described how the NHS in England will be effectively abolished if this legislation passes through Parliament.

There is a clear political agenda to replace vast swathes of the public provision of healthcare with the private and voluntary sector.

The English NHS will increasingly become a health insurer rather than a provider of services.

We are already seeing the return of significant waiting lists for elective surgery and some procedures like varicose vein surgery are no longer being considered as core NHS services.

Over time, the number of core services no longer funded by the NHS will increase and this will drive up the demand for healthcare insurance.

Our healthcare system will be transformed from a tax funded system to a mixed funding system, where the public will only get access to essential NHS core services and will need to take out private insurance or extra “top up” insurance to be properly covered for all services.

The poorest will be hardest hit as they suffer the most ill health in society and are least able to afford healthcare.

This amounts to a betrayal of the founding principles of the NHS.

Several surveys of the medical profession reveal that the vast majority of doctors do not support these reforms.

The BMA recently called for the Bill to be withdrawn at an emergency meeting of its members.

The pause in the passage of the Bill is a remarkable testament to the efforts of those opposing the Bill, but the NHS remains in grave danger.

The public, the healthcare professions and NHS campaign groups need to work together to stop these reforms and I would therefore urge Oxford Mail readers to lobby their MPs and speak to their GPs about these reforms.

They should also join in to support the Keep Our NHS Public campaign.

Dr Clive Peedell, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Co-chair of the NHS Consultants’ Association BMA Council