Sir – The article in your June 28 edition, which said that Oxfordshire Learning Disabilities NHS Trust looks set to be taken over from November is bad news for Oxfordshire people with learning disabilities and their families. This trust, also known as The Ridgeway Partnership, has done a good job for our county. It pioneered full participation by service users and carers.
If the merger with the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust (which has its headquarters in Southampton) goes ahead, this will leave Oxfordshire a very small part of a very large organisation.
The Ridgeway Partnership is not only good at care, but has kept its finances in good order. The only reason for the proposed merger is to satisfy arbitrary requirements for a market-driven NHS. All around the country large-scale disruptive re-organisations are taking place which have no connection with the provision of care. The disregard of the needs of patients and other service users has been the work both of Labour and coalition governments. A market-driven NHS has been created under the cover of lies by all the major parties about protecting the NHS, and is leading to loss of services, the waste of vast sums of public money, and ultimately privatisation.
The Tory/LibDem Government has forced through this unwanted NHS Act, which is the culmination of Labour’s actions over the previous 10 years, and people have been deliberately and cynically led into voting for this.
Larry Sanders, Green Group, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford
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