Our NHS needs total reform – not more cash

I have to agree with the main issues and inefficiencies that Lord Ashcroft raised about the NHS in his article last week. As someone who has worked in health and social care for over 40 years in Northern Ireland, many of the issues around waste and absence of accountability exist here also.

It is very evident that when there are waiting list initiatives and consultants are paid per procedure, they can suddenly double or treble their output compared to an ordinary working day. Yet none of the various management tiers ever challenge or highlight this disparity.

Ted Gallagher, Belfast

The NHS doesn’t need more money. It needs complete reform. Until a government is brave enough and competent enough to do it, the NHS will continue to be a black hole that money just disappears into.

N. Davies, Thanet, Kent

Unless the cash injection is overseen by a hard-hitting businessman who takes no prisoners, it will be wasted by the incompetent, woke, fat cat management at the top.

John Brown, London

Why are highly paid consultants still offered the opportunity to split their time between the NHS and similar private work? Surely someone can see the obvious conflict of interest. After all, without a waiting list who would be paying privately?

Helen Mitchell, London

As a nation we spend less of our GDP on healthcare than countries such as France, Canada and Japan, and around half of what they spend in the USA where almost 30million people have no health cover. Do you still want to talk about inefficiency?

T. Robertson, Manchester

We need to go back to the 1960s and bring back matrons. They advanced through the ranks from student nurses knowing how hospitals are run from the wards, and about staffing and costing, and would have the knowledge and experience to introduce greater efficiency.

Ann Oliver, Cheshire Why is the head of the NHS not taken to task in the same way that any CEO running a failing company would be?

Geoff Henderson, Cyprus

Immediate savings could be made by having an efficient system for the return of medical equipment and insisting treatment is paid for by those not entitled to it.

M. Grant, Surrey

People die in their thousands because they cannot access the healthcare they need. The main reason is lack of capacity in both beds and doctors/nurses.

Failure by the Government to train enough staff and build enough hospitals means it will take more than a decade to fix.

Extra funds will help but will be too little, too late for many.

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