Tory leader David Cameron's plans for a "luxury" health visiting service are based on a trip that his shadow cabinet colleagues made to the Netherlands (www.cypnow.co.uk, 17 March). This service is paid for by a top rate of income tax of 52 per cent - something that sits uneasily with the Conservatives' long-term agenda of tax cuts.
There are currently serious issues facing the health visiting profession in England. Staff numbers are at their lowest for 14 years and training places have been cut by some 40 per cent.
We have constantly emphasised to ministers the importance of health visitors for implementing the public health improvements that they seek and we take heart from Health Secretary Alan Johnson's pledge at last year's Labour Party conference that more health visitors are needed. Future generations will benefit from the investment we, as a nation, make in health visitors today.
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