THE revelation that appalling services at Stafford Hospital may have caused 1,200 unnecessary deaths, cannot be looked upon as anything less than establishment murder, but that is not the worst of it.

What is worse than that? You may well ask but the primary cause of this tragedy is there to be repeated throughout the land in the name of Foundation Trust Status, which supposedly gives hospitals the right to control their own budget, but the cost is too great in every way.

Stafford Hospital management ignored medical need to shave £10 million from its budget in order to qualify for that status, but following investigations, the cost in patient's lives has become unacceptably clear. The culture of cash before lives cannot be allowed to continue.

It is in the hands of us all to say enough is enough. We must find a way of collectively saying: "We make the contributions in taxes from the day we begin working and purchasing to fully support a genuine NHS."

We cannot afford the wholesale rape of the NHS by private industry, agency or supplier, and after more than 30 years, no Government has been able to demonstrate a better way to serve us than the original concept, and that is not a free market cash cow!

I would like to see a genuine referendum in Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Staffordshire Moorlands on whether we wish to allow the University Hospital of North Staffordshire to go for foundation trust status, but my opposition has been made clear.

GEOFF CUBLEY

Save Our NHS

Newcastle