NHS is political football

THROUGHOUT my adult life, the NHS has been used as a political football by both major political parties without either getting to grips with the real issues. Thus people lash out aimlessly and make accusations of privatisation by one party or another, when

The real issue is that no one is prepared to clarify what the NHS is for, and what it is not for. For example during one year under Labour £350m was spent removing unwanted tattoos, and we are all aware of the taxi and hotel facilities doled out to drunks on Friday and Saturday nights. Surely such provision was never the intention when Bevan and the other founding fathers conceived the NHS. Only now it is becoming clear that a new threat to the NHS is the European Union. As in all other areas of our lives this institution is proving disastrous, and as usual at our cost.

In a report supported by the Royal College of Physicians, rules from the EU are excoriated for limiting the number of hours doctors can work and it is costing the NHS £750m a year. This is the cost of locum doctors because the regulations mean fewer staff doctors are available.

Patients are being seen by five different teams in a single day because strict rota systems are imposed, and 280,000 hours of surgical training are lost every month because of time limits. Doctors beginning training courses today will lose 128 days training compared with those who studied before 2009. And there is much more. Together with the above, that is over £1 billion a year and what does Mr Healey our MP committed Europhile have to say about that?

Before he replies you have to be in it to change it, let me alert to you to our track record on that score. Of the 55 times the UK has attempted to make amendments to EU legislation we have failed on every occasion.

So why do any of our leaders keep trying to convince us they can make a difference and that renegotiation of our terms is possible, when it has been made clear by Germany supported by the rest, that it is not. This tale of woe goes on; the French will block any serious amendment to Common Agricultural Policy, the Spanish and French have blocked Fisheries policy and on it goes. So give us a referendum on the EU now, why do we need to wait?

Today a Labour MP on the morning news was calling for a £10 per month charge for use of the NHS, plus additional charges for periods spent in hospital and increased prescription charges. This looks like and insurance scheme to me! If we got to grips with what the NHS is for, and with what the founders intended, together with telling the EU to mind their own business, we are quite capable of managing our own affaires: thank you. The NHS would remain the envy of the world. What does Mr Healey and his tax and spend buddies nationally and locally have to say about that?

Allen Cowles, Whiston