LET’S BE HONEST ABOUT WHAT THE NHS COSTS

As a retired NHS consultant who was fortunate to have worked in the Health Service when there was relatively more money available for what would now be seen as limited treatments, I read your editorial “Critical condition” (7 December) with interest.

It does not surprise me that NHS funding has failed to keep pace with what, to me, are the extraordinary, but costly, advances in investigation and treatment of diseases since I qualified as a doctor.

What angers me are the repeated failures of successive governments to be honest with the electorate regarding NHS funding.

This, to me, is epitomised by the decisions made by Nice to refuse to fund certain expensive treatments for cancer as they are “not cost-effective”. This politicisation of medicine is repulsive, and demonstrates just how pusillanimous our politicians are when it comes to being honest about the cost, and painful decisions that need to be taken about the NHS.

Perhaps a referendum on the options for funding the NHS should be held to enable the electorate to make an informed decision about this? Angus McPherson Findon, West Sussex It is extremely worrying that the NHS failed to investigate the unexpected deaths of more than 1,000 mental health patients, according to a report into Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

If this trust has not properly reported and investigated deaths then this could constitute a breach of the Human Rights Act. Public bodies have a duty under Article 2, a right to life, to thoroughly investigate unexpected deaths where the patient is under the care of the trust, either in hospital or even in the community. Sarah Jones Human rights lawyer Slater and Gordon, London WC2