SIR – On four separate days and locations within the Shipley constituency, when canvassing in the last General Election, I encountered four retired NHS managers.

All volunteered the same independent comment – they were fully aware of massive waste within the NHS.

Stunningly, all were voting Conservative in the expectation that a Tory government would end the expanding waste of funds encouraged by the Labour administration. It was imperative that the NHS was redirected away from central interference or it would crash.

Thus David Cameron’s pledge over NHS reforms on behalf of the Coalition (T&A, April 7) correctly states: “No change is not an option”.

The population aged over 85 is set to double within 20 years, one of several factors that force a change to a more industrious NHS.

Labour opposition spokesmen claim, erroneously, that the Conservative Party had nothing in their manifesto, but this is a deceit, pages 44 to 49 detail the required changes.

Under Labour, the number of NHS bureaucrats grew faster than medial staff. This must be corrected to provide the funds needed to increase doctors, nurses and equipment, benefiting patients by raising standards to a level enjoyed in continental Europe.

It is called efficiency – a strange phenomenon in the NHS.

Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley