I CAN assure David Furnell (Letter, October 20) that for years much of the NHS has already been run by “hard-nosed businessmen”, plucked from the commercial world and now in charge of various directorates within hospital trusts.

Similarly, private companies have been contracted for hospital catering and cleaning services.

In considering these options, UKIP is hardly suggesting anything very radical!

What your correspondent fails to mention is the immense damage done to NHS finances by the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), introduced by the last Labour government.

A prime victim in Hampshire being the Queen Alexandra Hospital.

I wonder if Mr Furnell has heard of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?

This is a cosy deal being quietly negotiated between the EU and the USA, and could cause an irreversible sell-off of the NHS.

This agreement would give any American companies taking over our health service the right to sue the British Government, if said Government tried to reclaim control of a privately-provided service which was deemed inadequate!

There lies the threat to the NHS, and UKIP’s spokesperson on health, Louise Bours MEP, has called on David Cameron to support the trade unions’ stance: that the NHS should be exempted from TTIP.

COLIN HINGSTON, Southampton.