IT was disappointing to read that MP Jesse Norman’s name appears on a list of 70 MPs with financial links to private health companies (MP rejects report, Hereford Times, November 27).

Having supported the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, Mr Norman was absent from a recent House of Commons vote to reverse the sections of this Act most likely to lead to NHS privatisation.

Unfortunately, although voted through, the Bill may be too little too late to protect the NHS from an imminent influx of private health company contracts.

Indeed, Herefordshire’s recently established Clinical Commissioning Groups (which give private companies an opportunity to bid for NHS services) may already have these new contracts in place. So, from April 2015, our local health services could look very different.

No-one can deny that Jesse Norman has been a conscientious, hard-working MP – even pushing the government for fairer health funding for Herefordshire.

But he must be aware, that however much new central funding is allocated to our county’s cash-strapped NHS services, a significant proportion of it will soon be swallowed up by private providers. And their aim is simple: to make a big profit for their wealthy shareholders.

CATHARINE SADLER Little Birch