IN the build up to the general election there has been little discussion about the disastrous changes to the NHS being proposed by the so-called Sustainability and Transformation Plan for Cheshire and Merseyside.

Similar plans - which cover 44 parts of England - have been made in a secretive manner, with very little public information.

They are nothing more than plans to slash, trash and privatise our NHS. We do know that they involve nearly a billion pounds being chopped off our local health budget.

But most worrying is a move to the American model of healthcare management called the Accountable Care Organisation/ System.

This system, with low fixed budgets that will not meet our needs, will turn the NHS into a two- tier insurance-based health system.

The rich will be able to afford pay; the rest of us will be left with a poor, minimal NHS, like the American Medicare/Medicaid system.

I would urge all readers to contact their candidates and let them know that the public will not stand for the destruction of the NHS and all MPs must reject the STPs and the move to Accountable Care Organisations.

Kevin Donovan, Birkenhead.