The NHS cannot go on as it is now

BACK in the 1980s with the Cold War raging the NHS budget and the defence budget were similar. Today the former is 9.8 per cent of GDP with defence pinned at two per cent – and even that figure is way above what is contributed by our European “partners”. Yet Vladimir Putin is just as dangerous as Khrushchev or Brezhnev ever were. The simple fact is that in money terms the NHS is a bottomless pit, a money appetite that can never be satisfied.

Two suggestions. The dream of Nye Bevan is dead in the water. We will have to accept – or go nationally bankrupt – that those with ample funds should pay for their healthcare. Or at least a portion of it. Or “go private”. Second, those who insist on destroying their own health – the vastly fat ( selfadministered), the perpetually drunk ( ditto) and the wheezing smokers ( ditto) should get an invoice to cover the repair of what they have, for their own pleasure, done to themselves.

WE ARE one of the sickest nations on earth and every year getting more so. Yes, the genuinely ill or injured should be treated at top quality and without delay. But I understand up to a third of those being treated could amply afford insurance cover – it’s compulsory to drive a car – and another thumping slice of the unwell or unfit have done it to themselves. So why should those who try to eat and drink modestly and stay in reasonable shape have to fork out for the wealthy or for the boozers, gorgers and chainsmokers? Sooner or later this “sacred cow” status of the NHS is going to have to be rethought.