AS residents of Tavistock and surrounding areas we are writing to express our concern about the coalition government's Health and Social Care Bill which we believe represents an ideological drive towards an open market where profits can be taken out of the NHS by private healthcare companies and shareholder value will be put ahead of ahead patient care. 

The changes will mean there will be no limit on the amount of money hospitals can make from private patients that pay for care, pushing NHS patients to the back of the queue and a lack of regional oversight of commissioning will create a 'postcode lottery' service.

Last week the editorial in the Lancet stated the Bill will mean for GPs — 'The emphasis will move from clinical need back to cost' and that ' . . . the UK Government's new Bill spells the end of the NHS'.

In the same week the editor of the British Medical Journal wrote 'What do you call a government that embarks on the biggest upheaval of the NHS in its 63 year history, at breakneck speed, while simultaneously trying to make unprecedented financial savings? The politically correct answer has got to be: mad'.

A major survey by the Royal College of General Practitioners of nearly 2,000 of its members found almost two-thirds opposed the Government's reforms. 

We call on our local doctors to add their voices to the growing demands within their profession to stop co-operation with the government and to refuse to go along with the destruction of our cherished NHS.

Martin and Margaret Quinn, Tavistock; Martin and Alison Young, Bridestowe; Veronica Bendall, Lifton; Ellen Stuart, Tavistock; Hannah Griffin, Callington; Grace Carter, Callington; Annabel Farnall-Watson, Kingsbridge; Jackie and Kevin Eady, Tavistock; Mike Dennis, Tavistock; Jean Quartley, Tavistock; Andrew Cullen, Plymouth