NHS reality check

The news (12 September) that “scans, tests and medical staff” are only available for about 35 hours of the 186-hour week comes as little surprise to those of us who were around when the NHS was set up.

Contrary to Labour Party folklore, there was an extremely 
efficient health service in Britain prior to the establishment of the NHS.

For instance, it had coped 
admirably with the demands of war and Blitz only a few short years before, but the Victorian conditions under which its employees worked did need to be vastly improved.

However, many of the newly elected Labour politicians at that time were more interested in 
establishing the powerful trade union “closed shop” – and the restrictive practices which went with it – than they were interested in patient care.

It’s sad to see that despite all the favourable propaganda about this being the new British religion and so on, that “pull up the ladder, Jack” attitude of the founding fathers still prevails at the very heart of the service to this day.

Irvine Inglis

Reston

Berwickshire