It is more than money: the NHS is not sustainable in its present form Brexit as it wasn’t

SIR – Jeremy Hunt, the Health and Social Care secretary, will be pleased that there is some sort of solution over money for the NHS.

We can look forward to a major speech or two setting out his proposals for the future of health and social care. He has always said it is not simply about money and that the NHS is “not sustainable in its present form”.

We are fortunate that he has been in post for a while and has had time with his team to examine other health-care systems round the world. He has already identified the major problems, including waste and inefficiencies, pressure on A&ES, and the need to realign health and social care.

His plans are much needed while chaos reigns in Parliament. Martin Greenwood

Fringford, Oxfordshire

SIR – Mr Hunt appeared on BBC Breakfast TV yesterday, trying to avoid answering questions about Theresa May’s pledge to increase NHS spending by £20 billion. Apart from

his usual “rabbit in a headlight” appearance, what came over was obfuscatory waffle, the same sort of flam employed by the Government with regard to Brexit. No wonder voters are confused and frustrated. Brian Pegnall

Falmouth, Cornwall

SIR – If Theresa May believes that promising a Brexit dividend for the money-pit of the NHS will prompt Brexiteers to fall in line over yet more unreciprocated “compromises” to be offered to the contemptuous EU negotiators, she should think again.

The main point of the £350 million a week referendum slogan was to highlight the enormous waste of our EU contributions. It was not to waste it in turn on an unreformed NHS. This may be good politics, but Mrs May must remember the promises she made to the nation to take back control from the EU, in line with the largest vote for anything in British history. Tim Coles

Carlton, Bedfordshire

SIR – Sarah Knapton (report, June 18) raises the story of one hospital paying 4,500 per cent more than another on rubber gloves. Although PFI contracts are responsible to some degree, the emergence of clinical commissioning groups accelerated the move away from central buying.

Let’s return to NHS England buying and distributing medical supplies to hospitals on a national level. Simon C Meares

Bexhill-on-sea, East Sussex

SIR – Increasing spending on the NHS without fundamentally restructuring it will worsen its performance. The NHS has demonstrated throughout its history the Law of Bureaucratic Displacement: “In a bureaucratic organisation, increased expenditure will be matched by fall in production.”

This is due to increased funds swelling the numbers of bureaucrats, whose activities obstruct and displace the activities of productive workers. Dr Max Gammon

London SE16