SIR - In response to your article Fears over future of health care , (The Comet, June 12), I would like to assure your readers that a private company is not being brought in to run the primary care trust (PCT). The two PCTs in Hertfordshire have made en

SIR - In response to your article 'Fears over future of health care', (The Comet, June 12),

I would like to assure your readers that a private company is not being brought in to run the primary care trust (PCT).

The two PCTs in Hertfordshire have made enormous progress since the last performance ratings were published in October last year. These ratings relate to the period between April 2006 and March 2007 - a time of major upheaval as eight primary care trusts merged to form two new organisations. These new PCTs also inherited a difficult financial position and, at the time of the assessment, we were unable to be sure that we had completely met all of the standards.

Over the past year, things have improved dramatically in Hertfordshire. We have paid off all our historic debt and now have money to invest in developing new services. We have also set the future direction for health care across the county following our 'delivering quality health care for Hertfordshire' consultation.

The new Department of Health powers, to which your article refers, are rightly being introduced as a last resort to ensure that under-achieving organisations make plans to improve. However we are confident that this would not apply to the Hertfordshire primary care trusts.

This week, the Healthcare Commission published the self-assessments from all NHS organisations which will feed into our 'Annual Health Check' rating this October. Our self-assessment shows just how much we have achieved over the past 12 months and we are certain that Hertfordshire patients will benefit from the improvements.

ANNE WALKER

Chief Executive

East and North Hertfordshire PCT & West Hertfordshire PCT