I agree with medical student Julia Simons wholeheartedly regarding funding for the NHS (I couldn’t stay silent when Johnson visited my hospital, Journal, 5 November).
I retired from my position as a consultant in a major London hospital in 2002; for many years prior to my retirement I was aware of the lack of funding for the NHS, whichever government was in power. Each year, usually just after Christmas, we were told that we were overspent and that measures must be taken, such as closing wards, or no longer employing agency nurses or locum doctors. Patients were made to suffer through ward closures and increasing staff shortages.
I was recently a patient following major surgery in my local hospital. I was delighted with my care, but well aware of chronic staff shortages on the ward, with some nurses staying over their allotted time because of their dedication to the service. They told me that they were under constant pressure because of lack of money as well as lack of staff.
All the parties involved in the forthcoming election are promising large increases in funding for the NHS, but what will happen when they get into power? We have heard it all so often that we can’t afford it.
I hope that Julia Simons can survive her first two years as the shortages and lack of funding often mean that too much pressure is placed on young doctors. I am sure that she has a lot to offer the NHS. I am committed to the NHS and want to see it successful, not to suffer because of the whims of politicians.
Name and address supplied
• Thank you, Julia Simons, for your personal account. Recently, I spent a stressful time in a hospital described in our local paper as “increasingly tired”. At a follow-up appointment I was seen by a junior doctor, ashen-faced with sleep deprivation and overwork. He was kind, courteous and thorough. Afterwards I said to my husband, “he is someone’s son”, I was so concerned. We desperately need these young people, but empty promises are not the answer.
Jean Jackson
Seer Green, Buckinghamshire
• Simon Jenkins is right to challenge the electoral sanctity of the NHS (The NHS needs more than just cash. It needs major reform too, 4 November). It was indeed always political “since the day it was born”. But Labour cannot claim exclusive parental rights. To do so denies Liberalism its true place in our national legacy. The original driving force for implementing the NHS was the 1942 Beveridge report. And as Tony Blair reminded us in his 2001 conference speech: “Today our idea of society is shaped around mutual responsibility; a deal, an agreement between citizens, not a one-way gift from the well-off to the dependent. Our economic and social policy today owes as much to the liberal social democratic tradition of Lloyd George, Keynes and Beveridge as to the socialist principles of the 1945 government.”
When Beveridge drew up the blueprint for the NHS, it was assumed that the costs would be balanced by national insurance receipts. It was further assumed that health spending would reduce as the nation’s health improved. However, neither happened. What was set up originally with a blank cheque has led to an uncontrolled debt that is being passed on to future generations.
Surely the role of today’s politicians is not to weaponise the NHS, but instead to dispassionately allocate national spending as a proportion of our national wealth, and to facilitate and liberalise best practice. At best, cross-party. If not, through a renewed coalition of Labour and Liberal values.
Mike Allott
Chandlers Ford, Hampshire
