I WAS just a lad when Labour was elected to government after the Second World War. Now it seems pretty obvious that the promise of a National Health Service for all played a very large part in that somewhat unexpected election victory.

Despite my tender years, I remember some of the selling points made by politicians at the time, in particular one made by Aneurin (Nye) Bevan who said that the NHS could not survive financially without the funds earned by selling private health care. Most hospitals were earning extra through private patient care, which in effect subsidised the rest of us.

This worked fine until under another Labour government, the two main health workers' trade unions (COHSE and NUPE) forced health minister Barbara Castle to release the majority of private work from the NHS.

In recent years, ever increasing wads of cash have gone into the coffers of the private medicine industry. In that time I have witnessed families unable to register with a NHS dentist. I have read of lifesaving medicines being refused to patients on grounds of cost. I have seen the claim that closing A&E departments will provide a better service, and I have seen dedicated NHS personnel struggle to maintain a service with ever decreasing staff numbers and wards.

I thought I had seen it all, but now I read of a private NHS hospital opening in the New Forest and am convinced that this is the start of the final move towards full circle.

I am disgusted that a Labour government in the 1960s weakly allowed the decline of NHS finances. I am disgusted that New Labour is overseeing allegedly Thatcherite policies to destroy the NHS and return the UK to the horrors of private medicine for the priviliged only.

I am disgusted that the wonderful NHS, brought about by brilliant Labour MPs of vision in the 1940s is now in the process of being broken up.

ALAN KEBBELL, Southampton.