I AM writing to ask readers to take pen to paper, cursor to e-petition, voices to Westminster – to do whatever they can to halt this terrible NHS reform Bill which is about to wreck the cornerstone of how we care for one another and each other.

Care should be based on clinical need, not the ability to pay, as clause 162 of this Bill seeks to implement. If the Government get their way, NHS hospitals will naturally expand fee-based treatment.

This represents a massive shift to a market-orientated service, not a health service.

Those that can't afford to pay will wait longer. This is the analysis of the Bill's own Impact Assessment. One of the few (and there were only a few!) advances under Labour was the reduction in waiting lists – this Government seeks to reverse that trend and incentivise care.

The lure of hard cash will be difficult to resist in times of so-called 'austerity'.

Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs agrees. She said in The Guardian "I worry we're heading towards a situation where healthcare will be like a budget airline. There'll be two queues: one queue for those who can afford to pay, and another for those who can't. Seats will be limited to those who muscle in first. And the rest will be left stranded on the tarmac."

Another eminent medical practitioner, cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, also demands that the Health and Social Care Bill be dropped and argues that the Bill will see the 80 per cent satisfaction rate the NHS enjoys will fritter away under the proposed Bill's new regime.

He argues: "This monstrous bill is designed to privatise the NHS at every level: primary and secondary care, in community health services, and in commissioning – all of it deceptively concealed by the trusted NHS logo. The reforms will increase the stake of private companies in the NHS, so that instead of GP-led primary care and consultant-delivered hospital services we will witness "any willing providers" picking up the most lucrative operations, with the NHS left to provide complex, costly care. There should be absolutely no illusion that we are being led towards an Americanised system of healthcare."

The House of Lords is still debating the Health Bill and so there is still time to stop this. Join the half a million who have signed the 38 degrees on-line petition to 'Save the NHS'; write to as many Lords as you can, and talk or write to your own GP to ask them to get involved.

We'll only lose the NHS once. Remember, three out of four of GP's want this bill withdrawn according to a poll at the Royal College of GPs. Lansley tried to dismiss the poll, saying that 6 per cent of respondees were Scottish and therefore not affected by the Bill. That's how much credence he gives to NHS professionals. That's how much he cares.

Because they don't. You should.

– Carl Spiby, St. Briavels.