TIM Parke (Agenda, The Herald, August 7) echoes my feelings in almost every sentence.

The NHS in Scotland is a tremendous success. It has a budget of more than £10bn, so when the media trumpets the spending of a very few millions on private healthcare (for example, to speed up treatment for some patients requiring immediate specialised care) people forget to mention that this is barely a drop in the bucket. As Tim Parke says, the bottom line in healthcare is the amazing increase in life expectancy that has taken place in less than one generation. We can all now look forward to several extra years of life, and healthy productive life at that.

This achievement has come from scientific advances and has been implemented by the thousands of dedicated staff employed by the NHS. The recent sudden acceleration in NHS privatisation by the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill in Westminster should ring loud alarm bells in Scotland. The Scottish Government has vigorously opposed such moves here, arguing that privatisation runs counter to the fundamental principle that health care should be free at the point of use. Privatisation also leads to the build-up of a huge bureau­cracy of people whose job is to calculate and collect charges, distribute fees and compete with other companies to promote the commercial success of their own.

Dr Parke is clearly a medic whose whole interest and amply-justified pride is in delivering healthcare and whose only interest in politics is to protect his beloved profession from political interference. Scots considering how to vote in next year's referendum would do well to heed his warning. It is clear that the Scottish NHS will continue to thrive under independence. On the other hand, a No vote will inevitably lead to privatisation in this country too, since the Barnett formula (which dictates Scotland's funding) means that every £10bn that Westminster saves by passing responsibility for their NHS to private companies in England will mean the loss of £1bn to the Scottish NHS.

Dr Willie Wilson,

57 Gallowhill Road, Lenzie.

DR Tim Parke's insightful review of the better outcomes in stroke, cancer, heart attack and serious injury and advanced life expectancy in the last 10 years while acknowledging frustrations and sometimes the failures in the NHS should be required reading for all politicians, NHS personnel and administrators.

His call to protect the NHS against the provision of care by multiple providers in a mostly private system with its dangerous and frustrating gaps and its expensive duplication is timely and welcome.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road,

Kilbirnie.