More money only solution for NHS
Editor News editor In the December 23 edition the Messenger included an article about the cuts in health services being planned by West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group. Across Kent as a whole the gap in funding for health and social care could grow to £486 million by 2020/21, unless significant changes are made to how the services are provided.
Our health bosses are spinning these changes as an improvement in health services but that remains to be seen.
The KM commented that the planned cuts were happening across England as the NHS is being told to make cuts of £22 billion by 2020/21. You said this heralded the most fundamental shake-up of Kent (and English) health services in decades.
We should be under no illusion this is occurring because the government is refusing to fund the NHS properly, as everyone can see when they visit a hospital, surgery or care home.
Your paper said that you don’t have the answer to this problem and no one does. But the answer is staring us in the face. The NHS and social care needs more money. Instead it is getting another top down reorganisation, which the public has little control over. Jim Pragnell, Otford when they use our country’s NHS in the same way we are charged when we need medical help abroad.
If you look here http://tinyurl. com/europehealth on NHS Choices, you will find detailed information on how the repayment system works.
The advice includes the following: “The NHS in England is a residence-based system, unlike many other countries, which have insurance-based healthcare systems. This means that all visitors to England may have to pay for NHS healthcare, depending on their circumstances.
“If you are a visitor from the European Economic Area (EEA) and you fall ill or have a medical emergency during your temporary stay in England, then you’ll need a valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) issued by your home country. If you can’t show a valid EHIC, you may be charged for your treatment.”
I suspect these procedures are not being properly followed. We obviously cannot afford to lose these payments and I expect other readers will agree that those of us who have paid for the NHS all our lives should not have to go without treatment we need because foreign nationals have had free treatment at our expense.
I have written to the West Kent CCG and the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospital Trust under the Freedom of Information legislation for advice. Tony Monk, Westerhill Road, Coxheath There has been debate after debate, initiative after initiative, with changing governments.
The fundamentals continue to be that funding is decreasing, demand is increasing. Somehow this country manages to find money for all sorts of things, massive overseas spending, nuclear arms, vanity projects like the new north/south rail link.
Surely we can find the necessary resources? Where there is a will there is a way. We have the talent, ingenuity to resolve this issue. Seriously consider taking it outside party politics.
At the moment we are sleepwalking into a declining service where more and more people will inevitably fail to receive the service they need and deserve. I am hoping some statesmanlike politician will emerge to grab this issue soon before it is too late. Clive Richards, Cavendish Way, Bearsted trains, they can’t walk out and cause future disruption.
Government intervention has been restrained, but the cost to commuters no longer allows denial of what is now transparently about union power rather than passenger safety. With no solution in sight the ‘do nothing’ option cannot survive. If you can remember British Rail you’ll know full nationalisation is not the answer. It is time for the Secretary of State to roll up his sleeves and end this dispute.