I WRITE in response to Bill Tanner’s story ‘Filipino nurses recruited by NHS Trust fail English test’ (Hereford Times, August 6).

If anyone is wondering why we are so short of nurses in the UK and have to rely on overseas nursing recruitment and expensive agency staff – who are limited to what they are allowed to do on duty – ask your MP why last year over 37,000 potential nursing students were turned away (according to figures from the Royal College of Nursing).

There has been some sort of pledge to increase training places but this will not make up for the massive shortfall across the UK.Yet the government is now making it even tougher for the NHS by making changes to the immigration rules which makes it harder to recruit from overseas. To my way of thinking this is a shrewd plan to set the NHS up to fail, and then when it has all fallen apart, what does the government plan to do? Privatise it.

Isn’t it always the case when privatisation of any highly regarded public sector organisation is government policy, they starve it of cash, make it struggle, bring it to its knees, then politely tell us they have done everything possible, there is no one else to blame, there’s no other choice but privatisation of the whole system. If I am wrong, tell me.

BARRY WATSON Bartestree