I WA S dismayed to read today's front page article ("Warning key A&E waiting times may never be met", The Herald, December 15).

Why does anyone think it is reasonable to leave their elderly mother or father lying on a trolley in an A&E Department corridor for more than four hours waiting for a bed? The number of patients who gain clinical benefit from spending more than four hours on an A&E trolley is tiny, so tiny it is irrelevant to the target.

Scottish A&E Departments did regularly meet the 98 per cent target in 2008-2009 as publicly-available Information Services Division data proves. The MSPs' audit committee clearly hasn't looked back far enough into the NHS Scotland data to realise the problems have been created by prioritising painful hips and knees over life- threatening pneumonia whilst reducing bed numbers to celebrate the success of admitting or discharging 98 per cent of patients within four hours of arriving in the A&E Department.

The waiting times targets revolutionised care in our A&E departments. I remember the days before these targets and they were dreadful for patients. Why are our political masters determined to return us to those dark days?

Malcolm Gordon,

Emergency Medicine Consultant,

20 Thomson Drive,

Bearsden.

LIZ Murray of the World Development (Letters, December 12) draws attention to the limited value to Scotland of the proposed Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, in terms of trade. She makes only passing mention of the far greater significance of TTIP to Scotland, namely the danger of opening up NHS Scotland to American private healthcare companies.

The Health and Social Care Act (2012) triggered the privatisation of NHS England, by making it obligatory that all contracts go out to tender in the healthcare market. This process is already well underway.

The Westminster Government has either not thought about the implications for NHS Scotland and the devolved health administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland, or else it considers TTIP a convenient covert vehicle for forcing its privatisation agenda throughout the UK.

Requests have gone from the Scottish Government to both London and Brussels seeking guarantees that NHS Scotland would be exempt from the TTIP. The response from London has been that no such assurances have been sought by the team negotiating the treaty. For the same reason, Plaid Cymru has also urged the UK Government to exempt the Welsh NHS from TTIP.

Because the TTIP agreement is with the UK Government (as part of the EU), the Scottish NHS would inevitably be drawn into privatisation and US healthcare companies would easily argue that a "regional" part of the British NHS could not be exempted from the terms of the treaty.

There has already been an attempt by American healthcare companies to sue the Czech government because they have renationalised their healthcare system.

TTIP also poses a significant risk to public health measures which Scotland may wish to institute in the future, such as plain cigarette packaging, minimum pricing of alcohol or future controls on junk food.

An opt-out for NHS Scotland from TTIP is vital for its future survival as a nationally owned and controlled service, free at the point of use.

Dr Willie Wilson,

Founder, NHS for Yes,

57 Gallowhill Road,

Lenzie.

THERE are times when one wonders what the founding fathers , William Beveridge, Arthur Greenwood, Aneurin Bevan, Clement Attlee, and others, would make of the National Health Service as we have it today (" NHS chief vows speedy action on c diff improvements", The Herald, December 13).

When one reads the reports on serious deficiencies in hospitals, such as Aberdeen Royal, the Glasgow Royal, and Vale of Leven, and reads of the comments of Paul Gray , chief executive of NHS Scotland, that the organisation had "come a long way this year", one is inclined to query the road it has been on and in what direction it has been travelling.

It has been an appalling experience for the families of those affected by the deadly outbreak of C- difficile, particularly when they learn that the bug was a factor in the death of 34 of 143 patients, who tested positive for the infection at the Vale of Leven hospital during 2007-2008. It is disgraceful that the true figure is not really known, because medical records were not available for all those who died , and this in Scotland in these so-called modern times.

The families concerned are fully entitled to feel badly served and fundamentally let down by those responsible for the care of their relatives.

Much has been reported about the stresses and strains to which the NHS is currently subjected . No doubt part of the answer to such pressure lies in making working practices more effective and more efficient. However, most people understand that it is inevitable , particularly with an ageing population, that increased demands are being made on the services, and will continued to be made for the foreseeable future. Consequently , more funding will be required and therefore taxation needs to rise to address this national problem.

Politicians of all persuasions should be open with the public about this. Presented with a reasoned, detailed, and factual analysis of demands and needs , I believe that the majority of the tax-paying public are capable of being persuaded to pay more in taxation to ensure that we would not have the kind of NHS regularly requiring inquiries of one kind or another to determine what went wrong and to set out the lessons which must be learned, and instead have that much treasured and respected institution operating in the future with all the skills and resources needed to discharge its function properly among us.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road,

Lenzie.