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I had faith in Theresa May until she kept on Hunt.

My sister worked in the NHS all her working life and maintains that the only time it was properly funded was when we had a Labour Government.

Was it the A & E in Grantham? A newspaper article suggests going to Boston or Lincoln, but they're both miles away.

The population is growing (even without immigrants) and getting older and more frail. We should have more hospitals not fewer.

I guess we should have more money. Where's it to come from?

The lottery?
All money going to NHS every other month
just a thought...

It's a political choice isn't it. The government can find money for the things it wants to (Trident, subsidised bars in Westminster, HS2 etc) despite the fact that for several years now many experts have been saying:
There will be a sharp increase in the number of older people in the population as we head into the 2020s due to 2 factors:
1. Bulge in the post-war birthrate - baby boomers reaching their 70s and 80s
2. People are living longer
and in recent years they have added in a third factor
Unhealthy lifestyles and obesity leading to more people with (expensive) chronic health conditions like Type 2 diabetes.
But instead of ramping up the NHS to deal with this Hunt has been starving the NHS of the money it needs and expecting Trusts to make "efficiency savings" i.e. cuts. Oh and imposing a huge reorganisation when Cameron promised there would be no top-down organisation.

Charging those pensioners who can afford it reduced NI? Being more pro-active about making everybody pay their taxes? Cutting tax relief on pension contributions for higher rate taxpayers? Re-introducing the 45% tax rate? Introducing another band for council tax? Scrapping marriage tax relief? Introduce austerity for the wealthiest?

I'm sure there's plenty more.

Just thought of another one...re-opening/keeping open local hospitals, so that people can convalesce after an op without blocking beds in an acute hospital.

Is it a case of needing extra funding to keep the NHS going or is it the case that there would be enough money if it was spent more wisely? For instance the cost of bank staff, the cost of some medicines which can be bought more cheaply elsewhere, the cost of (arguably) some more cosmetic procedures.

Cosmetic procedures have almost disappeared in my area, including one I was promised years ago to repair a scar on my face. I expect other areas have similar rules.

The use of bank staff could be reduced if trusts were allowed to recruit more permanent staff and people didn't have the annoying habit of being more ill during the Winter.

Most medicines are bought as cheaply as possible and I don't think people prescribed certain expensive (eg cancer) drugs would be too happy about having them discontinued.

The fact is that the UK spends considerably less overall than countries such as France and Germany. The NHS is underfunded for what people expect it to do in a modern, supposedly first world country. I expect France and Germany use bank staff, prescribe expensive drugs and do a limited number of cosmetic ops too.

The 'internal market' (the system introduced by the Tories to procure services) costs about £3.2 billion for administrators, lawyers and accountants.

Using bank staff is a consequence rather than a cause. if you have budget problems, you put a ban on making permanent appointments. But you still have to cover the wards. It is also a consequence of not training sufficient doctors and nurses. There are Syrian doctors and nurses who would love to come here and work in the NHS but May won't let them into the country.