I agree with Luckygirl. Much though I'd love not to have to contribute any more in NI and Council Tax, we just can't hope to get the services we need without the money there to finance it. The amount of treatments and procedures available and required today re NHS are immensely greater , and probably increase year on year. When the NHS was first introduced, it had so much less to cover. Money has to come from somewhere. The other side of it is, unfortunately, that the money that is available, is not always used wisely! In one Health Board area, recently, an estimated £5million has been spent on investigating allegations brought against surgeons at a local hospital. The GMC is taking no action. During the time that the whole procedure has taken, even more money has been spent on cover by locum surgeons.