Set NHS cash for decades in advance

From: Mike Dennis, Ripon.

WOULD it not be a good idea if the National Health Service

(The Yorkshire Post, January 8) became a ‘non-political’ football?

If all the major political parties could agree that a certain amount of money could be spent annually say for the next 20-year period, and this budget was managed by a non-political ‘board of directors’ – including clinicians from a variety of disciplines and specialities and chaired by a political appointee if you like – we could get away from the short-term political mudslinging which has taken place for most of my life.

The amount of the budget could be set at a percentage of GDP which would be agreed by the politicians. The 20-year period could be reviewed and amended at, say, ten years – but in both cases it would be possible that both the Labour Party and the Conservatives could be ‘in power’ during this time, but the agreed Budget would stand.

Hopefully this could reduce, if not eliminate, the constant bickering which currently takes place.

From: Michael Green, Baghill Green, Tingley.

THE cancellation of January’s non-urgent operations by the NHS (The Yorkshire Post, January 4) looks to have a lot in common with the cancellation of flights last autumn by Ryanair.

Both involve managers who shut their eyes to the blatantly obvious until it was too late.

Both involve a desperate lastminute attempt to avoid the resulting chaos.

Both involve taking it out on the innocent ‘customers’, who are having to put up with the cancellations.

I doubt that heads will roll in either organisation. Why not?