Letters: Freeloading immigrants to blame for the crisis in our NHS

From: Mrs P Harrison, Primley Park Drive, Alwoodley, Leeds.
Is the NHS in crisis?Is the NHS in crisis?
Is the NHS in crisis?

WHY is everyone so surprised the National Health Service is in crisis? I’m not. Over my lifetime (I’m 75) government after government have allowed millions of people into this country.

They came, believing the NHS was free, and many have taken advantage of this. Why not? This was a big mistake made by governments past and present. To allow these people to take without paying, is it any wonder the NHS is in crisis?

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The NHS was never intended to be free, it was to be paid for by the working population, paying National Insurance contributions deducted from every working person’s wage.

This meant that if or when health care was needed it was free at source. Many people like me came from families that have paid into the system since it was first started. The NHS was never meant to serve large influxes of people without financial backing.

I cannot believe the politicians and the clever experts could not see this coming, with many cutbacks and ward closures we have a shortage of hospital beds.

How could that possibly happen? Is this some kind of sick joke? Meanwhile the doctors, nurses and all hospital staff continue doing a wonderful job looking after patients, no matter what the situation.

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It is now time something was done to keep our Health Service going, I don’t mean privatisation. Let’s get rid of some of these high paid managers for a start and get more money into caring for the working man and his family – just as the NHS was intended.

From: Thomas E Marston, Cambridge Street, Otley.

WHAT a relief to read the observations of Tom Richmond (The Yorkshire Post, February 18) and Raymond Wilkinson concerning the HS2 juggernaut. The sooner Brexit is in force, the better, as it may remove the urge to indulge in crackpot ventures just to upstage the French.

The whole project is obscene when you read the NHS, the envy of the world, is being starved of investment. How many OAPs stuck on stretchers will use HS2?

From: Max Nottingham, St Faith’s Street, Lincoln.

CARE and nursing homes are a stop-gap for our failing NHS. I’ve just spent some time with carers who look after elderly and dying patients. Death is a taboo word in our culture. Even old-age death. That needs to change gradually, so we can have grown-up conversations about its inevitability.