Make sure new NHS tax goes to the NHS

GREAT to hear that the NHS and social care are to get more funding.

There’s a clear need, and evidence galore that the NHS knows what it is doing.

Most people won’t object to this. The NHS is a national institution, it has highly trained and qualified staff and has done a fantastic job in the pandemic. A backlog has built up and it is right and proper that this be tackled.

A lot of nonsense is said about borrowing levels being too high, but this was/is a pandemic. We’re not out of the woods yet, so the unjabbed should please think of others and consider having the vaccine.

We borrowed enormously to pay for the Second World War because we had to, and we took decades

(60 years or so) to pay that all back.

It’s the same for borrowing for the pandemic – it had to be done, for the benefit of the people at the time and for the benefit of all others for all time.

What we can do and must do is ensure that the NHS and social care funds do go to NHS work and not get siphoned off to some Mickey Mouse third party with links to the NHS via websites.

Funding for NHS delivery work must be done by NHS staff who are trained and medically qualified. The same is true for social care work. There are some ‘fringe’ quacks offering healthcare who do no such thing in reality.

The NHS is tried and tested, and there needs to be transparency and rules around others working in healthcare who may have unqualified staff and not report fully and honestly as required by law. Health in all its forms is too important to be left to deceptive quacks.

Trust the NHS and regulated social care providers, and be sceptical of all others. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

T J Martin

By email