Letter: Time to put priorities of the NHS in order
It seems strange to me that at time when the President of the USA is fighting to ensure everybody in the States has access to a healthcare programme that politicians in the UK are doing their best to destroy the remnants of the National Health Service.
Over its lifetime the NHS has been used by the corrupt and greedy to further their own ends. The rewards of executives, surgeons and doctors have been far in excess of what the service is able to pay.
In order to afford these unaffordable salaries nursing services have been cut and ancillary services have been hived off to the private sector whose priority is not the client or the end user but the shareholder. Services are then pared to meet that priority. In addition we have the selfish individuals who continually turn up at A&E for a variety of reasons that are neither serious accident or emergency.
We hear of idiots who call out ambulances for small injuries that could wait until a GP is available.
Finally there are those people who demand "quality of life" treatment which has nothing to do with care or preserving life – cosmetic surgery, gender issues and fertility treatment are all issues that were never envisioned during the services' conception.
It's time we all woke up and took some responsibility for our own health, stopped screaming about our rights to Cinderella treatments, remembered our responsibilities and most importantly stopped our politicians destroying the NHS any further.
Otherwise we will become even more like the States: a great place to live, but if you are poor do not have the temerity to grow sick or old!
EWT Price, Alberbury
