Tax relief on private health schemes would rejuvenate the NHS

SIR – I wonder if another call for more cash for the NHS (report, June 15) is the way to bring about improvements.

It would be better, although not without cost, to restore tax credits for those buying private health schemes of their own. This would cause a massive expansion of private services, at all levels and in all specialties.

I realise that many would neither want, nor be able to afford, a private health scheme, but those who did opt in would at least vacate NHS queues, leading to benefits for all.

Most vitally, such expansion would create competition and sink the “provider of last resort” mentality that permeates the NHS – that dreadful Hobson’s choice of us or nothing, which distorts the attitudes of NHS providers.

Many new services would open up overnight.

I accept that Labour would cry foul and accuse the Government of privatising the NHS. This would be disingenuous of them, however, as they know that the NHS has been increasingly reliant on private providers for the past 20 years.

The wrong way to go is the current dog’s breakfast system of Clinical Commissioning Groups, where experienced GPS run services, usually involving lengthy admin, and are removed from what they are good at – seeing patients. I have often sat in three-hour talking sessions while poorly patients queued in reception, or were seen by a locum they’d never met before.

The GP fundholding scheme (introduced in 1991 and abolished less than 10 years later) represented the apogee of efficiency for the NHS. We GPS were able to negotiate contracts with NHS and private providers who were competitive on costs. Savings could be ploughed back and used to create services for NHS patients. At its peak, fundholding could match any provision by any private provider.

The simple expedient of restoring tax credits would rejuvenate the NHS and create healthy competition with an expanded private sector, while ensuring that public funds were spent most efficiently.

Dr John Behardien Manchester

SIR – I have received three letters from a company providing NHS services.

The first was a sign-off letter from a consultant dermatologist I had visited. The second was for an appointment with the same dermatologist. The third was for an appointment with a different dermatologist, at the same place and time as in the second letter.

Dick Clack Bredgar, Kent

SIR – The Home Office is to allow more doctors and nurses from outside the EU into Britain (Comment, June 15).

How is the housing crisis to be solved if the answer to every difficulty is to increase immigration? Will new recruits – often from countries that require medical staff more than Britain does – be bringing a home with them? Paul Spare

Davenham, Cheshire