Sir, as an old and long retired member of the dental profession may I say how thrilled I have been to see the mass of movement of dentists from the NHS to independent practice? May this continue apace.

Over 50 years the damage successive governments have caused to dentistry is quite shocking. Most of it in an effort to save public finance at our expense. I do not believe that their latest effort is any less destructive.

For those who do not remember, perhaps I should point out that prior to the NHS the National Health Insurance provided 'Dental Letters' to the poorer members of the public so that they could reclaim part of the cost of their treatment by the then private practitioners. I believe most of us were happy to accept this. Perhaps something like this could happen again. Perhaps, to begin with, it might be popular in areas where there are no longer any NHS dentists. Our negotiators would be accused of insatiable greed.

I congratulate all who have left the NHS. I enjoy the envy of friends who are medical GPs!