Does the NHS need a complete overhaul?

NHS executives have been quoted as saying the health service cannot cope with increasing costs. Yet I have never seen so many empire-building managers. It’s time to weed out the ‘do nothing, get paid a lot’ administrators. There are a lot of ways to save money and improve the NHS: GPs prescribing cheaper generic drugs, people from abroad paying up front before any treatment is given; two shifts in operating theatres; an end to expensive, bought-in, ready-made hospital food; and a return to traditional nurse training instead of degrees. The NHS needs an urgent review of where money is being wasted. G. McKIE, Warrington, Cheshire. THE NHS needs a complete rethink. While the vast majority of its staff are dedicated and make maximum effort, it is overburdened with management and inefficiency is a huge issue. Health Secretary Shona Robison keeps telling us record amounts are being spent, but where does this money go? We patients see little improvement. From the near-impossibility of getting a GP appointment, to waiting lists, to missed A&E targets the health service is struggling. But politicians take the easy route – all nurses are angels and we must spend more and more taxpayers’ money on the sacred cow that is the NHS. Nicola Sturgeon ‘takes no lessons from anyone on anything’, but the difficulties of the health service are beyond the limited ability of her very poor Cabinet. We need to look abroad and yes, even at England to pick up on innovations. We cannot just keep on spending. TOM SMELLIE, Edinburgh.