We need more doctors and nurses, not managers

PROFESSOR Stephen Smith says we need to charge people for hospital stays to help balance the books. I have a better idea: root-and-branch reform to remove layers of management and more investment in modern technology. This will cost a lot initially, but will be much cheaper in the long term. Either that or follow European models of a health insurance system.

M. COHEN, Huntingdon, Cambs.

I HAVE been writing to my MP, health ministers and prime ministers for the past ten years about the need to reform NHS funding and management. We need to stop simply throwing money at the problem. The NHS has to be reorganised by outside experts with the changes agreed by doctors and nurses. Revenue-raising measures should include charging everyone a minimum sum for treatment. Health tourists must pay. Doctors and nurses who emigrate should repay the cost of their training. Centralise procurement. If you miss an appointment, you should be fined £10. Senior managers shouldn’t be able to leave with a redundancy package and then work for another trust.

R. C. R. CROWLEY, Bovey Tracey, Devon.

INSTEAD of extending prescription costs to pensioners, we should charge those from abroad for treatment. Why should they receive free NHS care if they haven’t paid into the system? Think of the money the NHS would have for medical equipment if it had a proper charging system.

Name supplied, Bristol. THE NHS crisis could be resolved by encouraging more people to use the private sector. Medication prescribed by a private GP has to be paid for at cost price. But if it was the normal prescription charge, more people would go to such doctors, relieving the NHS workload. An NHS contribution towards elective treatment in a private hospital would reduce waiting lists. I worked in the NHS for 41 years and the Government must not throw even more money at it without a full cost-benefit analysis.