I WRITE regarding your editorial A privilege, not a right in Saturday’s Oxford Mail.

Richard Mackenzie and his group of IVF campaigners are not trying to get the NHS to fund endless attempts at IVF – the NHS only pays for one IVF cycle in any case.

What they are seeking is that Oxfordshire’s Primary Care Trust follows the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines set out in 2004, the same way other PCTs do.

Why should one section of the UK’s populace be restricted in its medical care that is clearly open to others, simply because of where they live?

If the NHS can fund these opportunities in other parts of the country, then it follows that every tax-paying UK citizen is entitled to an equal chance at treatment.

It is true that some cancer drugs are not available on the NHS – and it would be equally scandalous if a certain percentage of sufferers were denied them, simply because they lived in a PCT area that refused to pay for their treatment for no other reason than the lottery of a postcode.

The ‘National’ in National Health Service is there for a reason. It stands for the availability of, and access to, healthcare for every Briton, regardless of where in the country they live. And that most certainly is a right, not a privilege.

M SMITH, White Road, Oxford