NHS now a political football for country

IN response to the letter in Saturday’s Evening Post, by John Hadley, calling for “drastic changes” may I point out the following?

Over the past 30 or 40 years the National Health Service has undergone massive and drastic changes.

Ever since Margaret Thatcher started its privatisation by stealth, starting with domestic staff, and continuing over the years to spread privatisation to more and more areas of health care.

And that dogma persists today, making the NHS a political football.

As for comparing the English NHS with the Welsh NHS, that is utter nonsense.

One has only to listen to the English Health Minister on Sunday morning TV, to realise that comparison is ludicrous.

He is able to call on billions of pounds of investment on that side of the border at the drop of a hat, or when public scrutiny becomes too hot for him and this government to handle!

Wales is not in that fortunate position, because our funding is at the mercy of this Conservative government, which doesn’t even respect the Barnett Formula, which means that the Welsh NHS cannot be funded as well as it should be.

The people of this country are a captive market for health care, so why should private companies be allowed to make huge profits at the expense of the population?

The same criteria can be extended to all our utilities, like gas, electricity, water, the majority of which are owned by foreign companies.

Then there is public transport, also nearly all of which is owned by private companies, and we all know what a mess our transport system is in.

When will the people of this country wake up and realise that we are all being taken for a ride by this Conservative government, who fatten the fatcats and in so doing, themselves.

Under this government this country has become a laughing stock, one could cite a million reasons why but that would take too many column inches.

John Bendle via email