YP Letters: BMA poses as friend of NHS... while trying to destroy it

GP Taylor is wrong to suggest (The Yorkshire Post, February 17) that the Government wants to destroy the NHS. That honour, it seems to me, belongs to the doctors’ union, the BMA, which poses as a friend of the National Health Service.

Yet its long-term objective is, like all trade unions, to get more money for its members – something which I believe it thinks would be best achieved if the taxpayer-funded NHS collapsed, releasing doctors to sell their skills to the highest bidder. Jeremy Hunt, on the other hand, is giving most junior doctors quite a substantial pay rise.

Being stuck in a hospital bed for long periods does not, as Mr Taylor suggests, give one an insight into the way the system works. On the contrary, one sees only the very narrowest angle of view. Patients also develop a benign version of the Stockholm syndrome, ie they become so focused on the clinical staff caring for them that they see any outside influence – what Mr Taylor scornfully calls “clipboard carriers” – as hostile. A hospital simply could not function without its administrators, Mr Taylor. If they were not there, doctors and nurses could not care for patients. It really is as simple as that.

From: Chris Giddings, Springwood Drive, Halifax.

I DOUBT that anyone who has had need of the NHS would question the dedication and compassion of the doctors and nurses at the sharp end of the job. It is important no matter what the recent well publicised spat between the Government and the BMA that we do not lose sight of the importance of the NHS.

The recent article from GP Taylor only leads me to believe that his attention seeking comments and emotive language are those of an ill-informed politician.

Whilst I accept that the Taylor family are appreciative of the NHS at a critical time in their daughter’s life, it would be in no one’s interest to destroy the NHS.

Reality must come to the fore as we see costs rise and the increased need for expensive treatments take their financial toll on an all ready overstretched service. Commitments to efficiency and less bureaucracy are therefore needed.

Amid rising numbers of cancer patients, it is known that far too many people abuse the NHS, A&E and the ambulance services.

From: Peter Hyde, Kendale View, Driffield.

I WOULD suggest that drunks should be charged a substantial fee every time they have to use the NHS.