Shame on Tory NHS wreckers

■ IT is a sad fact that a senior nurses’ salary has fallen 20% in real terms since 2010.

It must be a priority of Keir Starmer to have a top down restructuring of the management staff in the NHS if Labour win the General Election.

There are far too many Tory installed managers replacing one matron, earning more than a nurse. It’s time for a proper Health Secretary to do his job.

Obviously, if Labour win, they have to sort out Jeremy Hunt’s destruction of the NHS from his time as Health Secretary and now as Chancellor. Apart from Michael Gove, I can’t think of a worse performing MP of all time.

Chris Torode, Richmond

■ Like millions of others I am frustrated at the NHS and how it is being run – but patients’ anger should not be aimed at those working within the health service, but at the people responsible for funding it. For far too many decades successive governments have tried to get blood from a stone by woefully underfunding the NHS, blissfully ignoring the fact you cannot get blood from a stone.

Ashley Smith, March, Cambs

■ I would gladly add my support to the number of voters who believe nurses should receive an increase in their pay. Society owes them our gratitude for the essential work they carry out on a daily basis. But at the end of the day, no matter how much appreciation we may bestow on NHS staff, it wouldn’t suffice in terms of providing them with a decent standard of living that only a salary reflecting their true worth can give them.

M Smith, Chatham

■ Our doctors and nurses deserve a decent wage for the extraordinary jobs they do. Keir Starmer needs to set out a decent plan for all NHS staff in his election manifesto. These politicians seem to take the NHS for granted. It is on its knees and doctors and nurses feel undervalued and disrespected.

Something needs to be done before the whole system collapses.

Mike Simmons, Doncaster

■ Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is quick to defend the SNP record of having the highest number of trainee doctors being recruited for NHS Scotland.

But he fails to explain why there are record numbers of doctors practices closing down here.

The truth is that record numbers are taking early retirement and many newly qualified doctors are going abroad after training which is the real cause behind 10% of practices closing in the last year. The SNP must get to grips with this situation or it will simply go from bad to worse.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen

■ Junior doctors have seen their salaries eroded over many years as a result of Conservative policy which has compelled them to strike. But this is not easy for them.

The NHS waiting list is very long and they are caring people who know that many patients are dying while waiting for treatment.

This is not the fault of doctors but a Prime Minister who wants people to think he is a reasonable person. A man who presides over a situation that sees people dying needlessly should not be in office.

Clive Osman Nuneaton, Warwickshire

■ Long waits in A&E are down to people going there because they can’t get to see a GP face to face. In many cases an appointment consists of a doctor or nurse practitioner diagnosing on a laptop.

And if you do get to see one they will only discuss one ailment at a time, unlike the days when they would check your overall health.

Paul Booker, Clay Cross, Derbys