Magic Bullet

I agree with you Day6. It stands to reason that when immigrants come to this country they will be ill the same as everyone else. The Government is turning a blind eye to how these numbers affect our schools and hospitals/doctors dentists. You cannot make the same money for X to stretch to treat XX can you?

Whenever Mr Corbyn tackles Mrs May on ths issue she always goes back to when the Labour Government was in power and how they ran this country down. Yes, they did, but how many years now have this Tory Government been in power (counting the coalition in that)? Isn't it about time they started taking some responsibility too, after all it is their policies that the NHS is governed by.

Well said MOnica!

Day6, overweight people can help themselves by watching what they eat. Smaller portions, cutting out sugar, watching those carbs and taking exercise, even as I do with my peddle exerciser helps, in other words eating and exercising sensibly.

In Mr Cameron's government what we saw was the rich rewarding the rich and the poor being left to flounder. As long as they worked from dawn to dusk and made the rich richer who cared about their health? Not Mr Cameron and certainly not Mr Osborne. If they had given more money to the NHS, which they had gleaned from their rich mates in tax, the NHS would be in a much better state than it is now. But no, they could afford private health care so why should they care?

I can see where you are coming from SheilaClare, but sometimes people are driven to using these escape routes by poverty, loss of hope, loss of self-respect because they cannot get a job, loss of confidence because they have been out of work for so long. Some end up on the streets because of ill health, or because they cannot pay their rent, or because they have run away from something horrible in their lives. It doesn't do to condemn people for sleeping rough. After all 'There but for the grace of God go I'. You do not know what has happened to them in their lives. OK maybe some have brought themselves to that state, but after all the policies Mr Osborne forced upon people some people just had no-where to turn and ended up on the streets. I try not to judge myself.

I cannot understand why we apparently need so many overseas workers. In the 50 and sixties we welcome Commonwealth citizens to help run our mills, these have all gone now, most of our manufacturing and industry has gone now and yes even though we appear to have negligible manufacturing and an increase in robotic production processes, we still need more people?
For all those who arrive we need more nurses and doctors and teachers to deal with them. This is a self perpetuating need.

Monica, who blamed the patients??? I didn't.

I commented on obvious over crowding - standing room only - and the lack of resources/new hospitals to cater for the increased demand.

Yes, many people come to the country with skills needed for various occupations. Whilst you might like to think the NHS is held together because of immigration it was pretty obvious that many immigrants were, like me, needing and waiting ( for a very long time) for medical intervention.

My point is, that population increase, however boosted, calls for more loical GP surgeries and services and more hospitals...If services are straining at the seams because of usage we need our surgeries and hospitals to maybe remain open for longer and for services to be available at evenings and weekends. This will call for more doictors and nurses and ancillary staff, but it has to be the way forward.

My recent experience of waiting over 90 minutes to be seen by a doctor, even though I'd arrived in good time for my appointment, and then hanging around for over an hour for blood to be taken, wasn't pleasant. Many people looked very poorly, and they had the same waiting times.

We need more hospitals or services to be avzailable

Oooops, continued.
We need more hospitals or services to be available at evenings and weekends. Usage of the NHS is a problem..services cannot cope with numbers.

I fully agree with those who've mentioned budgeting too. Civil servants in various government departments are guilty of wasting billions of pounds of tax payers money. I was appalled to learn how much is claimed for jollies and inflated expenses. We need scrutiny and accountability in both central and local government and, given the NHS is in such poor shape, perhaps a rethink as to where our spending priorities should lie.

Undoubtedly we do need extra medical facilities and there is only one way to get it and that is to increase tax levels.

Most of the reduction of services we are seeing everywhere from the NHS, Social care, education, to road repairs arise because over the last 20 years governments of all complexions have had an obsession with making us a low tax country because it will attract international business and the economy will grow and increase tax revenues. So far I have seen little evidence for this.

If we want a high level of services then we need to pay higher levels of tax. Not return to the 33p in the £ of the 50s and 70s, but certainly more than we are paying now.

Britain is by no means the only country to be struggling with the financing of its health services. In the last few days I have read stories about the problems facing both France and Germany over funding its health service and references that suggest Sweden too is having problems.

I recently had an appointment for an echocariogram at 7.30 in the evening. It was a bit of a hike because it wasn't the nearest hospital, but the car park was nearly empty and I was in and out in about 20 minutes. Apparently they were trying to catch up with the backlog but it would be could if they could always stagger these things a bit.

Yorkshiregel your 'observations' are so succinct and absolutely on the button. Wish you could somehow get this practical list in front of those with the power to do something with it. Mind you that makes me the eternal optimist!!! Anyway, well done you. I love practicality. Your list is so simple, straightforward and, I do believe, achievable. Maybe we could both dream on.........

Monica there is a view that it's pretty much impossible to collect much more than 35% of GDP however the tax system is arranged and whatever tax rates apply, and that the current tax take is close to the maximum. The article linked below explains this view.
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f83a5c3e-f21b-11e6-a45f-cc1b99ad256c

Fitzy54, thanks for he reference

I've kept resisting saying it but really the only Magic Bullet that would do any good would be the one aimed at Jeremy Hunt.

Apparently the latest brainwave is closing a whole lot of A&E departments and magically reducing demand by 30%. Presumably they are expecting a third of the people to either die or get better while they're searching for a hospital.