THE Government is determined to press ahead with its changes to the NHS, yet it seems most people are against what it is proposing.

At risk of being accused of high treason, I should like to pose the following questions to all of them.

First, if, as has often been said down the years by politicians and others, the NHS is “the envy of the world”, why has no other developed country adopted the same system of healthcare?

They’ve observed us for more than 60 years, yet have not gone down our route.

Second, many other European countries spend about the same as us on health care and achieve better patient outcomes. How do they do that if their system is wrong and ours is right?

It’s time we started to look at how others manage healthcare and stop believing that Aneurin Bevan knew best in 1948, and no other model will ever do for us.

All the evidence suggests there are better ways and we need to open our minds to the possibility that we, too, could do very much better, and for less money, if only we embraced, rather than feared, any change.

Derek Thornton, Stanley Crook, Co Durham.