I WRITE with growing concern regarding the recent events that has missed the news recently.

As some of you will know, your doctor's practice or health centre has been sending out letters asking you if you would like to opt out of the universal patient database scheme.

This process, which means that medical details can be accessed wherever you are, seems innocuous but is in fact a direct threat to the NHS and our privacy.

The government has opted us all in by default, unless you reply to request to opt out. What is not advertised is that your information will be sold to private companies.

Your personal details will then be sold to the highest bidder. Potential employers could then enquire about your medical history.

You could miss out on a job because you have had cancer, had an STD when younger or suffered from depression. This cannot happen. I implore you: please opt out.

This is another strike at the NHS from the Coalition Government. The NHS Act of March 27 2012, removed the government's duty to provide for healthcare for all.

This is the opening salvo from a government that would like to sell off the NHS to the highest bidder, piecemeal.

A government that has a vested interest in private healthcare. The reduction of nurses and doctors and the ever-increasing private healthcare bill that is used to cover the shortfall has privatised the NHS in all but name.

In all conscience I cannot stand aside and watch this happen. The NHS is intrinsic to British identity, sown into the very fabric of our society.

The NHS is not the envy of the world for no reason. It is a phenomenon even Barak Obama envies in our society. We have to stand up for the NHS and prevent privatisation from happening.

I will do everything in my power to stop this. Join me and do your part: Opt out and make sure this Tory-led government is not given another five years to govern.

They have already asserted that there will be no NHS under the next Tory government. Let's not let this happen.

– Steve Parry-Hearn, Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Forest of Dean.