Dr Mary McCarthy: The NHS can follow Team GB's success

This year's Olympics have gripped everyone's attention and the talk is of how well Team GB has done.

Medal followed medal, exceeding expectations and beating the predicted target of 48 medals. Of course there were a few expected to repeat the victories of 2012 with Mo Farrah and the cycling team bound to make waves.

However, there have been some welcome surprises as the gymnastics team secured a double gold medal and the host of medals won by the cyclists seems to show no sign of stopping.

The UK is now second in the medal table which is astonishing achievement.

Following the success in Rio there have been many interviews with the medal winners and their coaches, with previous Olympians and Team GB managers. Statistics have been cited proving the amazing improvements in UK sport over the past decade starting in 2008 in Beijing, continuing in London in 2012 and culminating in Rio. For every response given as to why there has been such success, the answers have all pointed to one conclusion; funding.

The release of lottery cash to fund sport has revitalised training schedules and enabled cyclists to access training facilities and velodromes that were not available before.

Winning gymnasts say that the lottery funding enabled them to work at the gym full-time without the necessity to hold down a job. Previously contestants would train in their spare time or at weekend and their training hours were inevitably restricted.

The success at the Olympics following the increased funding should surely show the government how the same developments can be made within the NHS if we just provided the funds. The NHS does not bring home a clutch of gold medals to prove its excellence but it is equally valuable and is failing through lack of adequate, let alone generous, funding.

The government should look at alternative ways of providing funding similar to that of the lottery funds to improve all aspects of the NHS. This would no doubt lead to better training and entice young people into the health care profession just as it has encouraged young people to compete in sports of all kinds.

Funding has vastly improved the face of sport in the UK. Funding would also dramatically improve our NHS where we should be striving for gold at all cost.