Does the government actually care about the NHS?

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The government has reaped this chronic state of affairs because of years of underinvestment in the NHS (Getty)

Britain cannot afford to lose – if the medical council figures are correct – 10,000 doctors who may leave to work in Australia, Canada and Ireland due to low pay and working conditions in the NHS.

It is disgraceful and foolhardy not to have negotiated long before now with all groups within the NHS to prevent the millions of patients suffering – and some dying – from lack of treatment. There don’t appear to be any signs of a will to end the dispute (on the governments side, at least), which begs the question: is Rishi Sunak’s government able to offer a planned way out of this mess?

Certainly, since the start of the NHS disputes the government seems to have relinquished any responsibility for the industrial action taken by many facets of the NHS. Although some workers have been placated by improved offers of increased pay, there doesn’t appear to be a wholehearted acceptance of the governments pay deal. In my view, NHS employees have resumed work because they care about the harm their strike has done to their communities.

The government has reaped this chronic state of affairs because of years of underinvestment in the NHS, both in terms of salaries and conditions of work. The NHS workforce is, by all accounts, 100,000 practitioners short of a full compliment. No wonder the waiting times for treatment is rising and emergency services are at breaking point.

This 14-year rule by the Tory government has been disastrous for many in Britain, but it has been particularly damaging to the NHS. But does the government really care? It doesn’t seem so.

It appears that this government is ambivalent about whether the NHS or private healthcare companies treat patients. Look what has happened to our dentistry care in the past 14 years, it is now virtually impossible to find a dentist to treat patients through the NHS. The cost of private dentistry is alarmingly high, further damaging the health of the nation due to unaffordability for millions of low paid workers and pensioners.

Bring on the election to bring a more caring, vibrant and dedicated government in to give British people a better future.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Assisted dying is a human right

Dame Joan Ruddock’s description of her husband’s last days was heart-rending. She should not have needed to consider helping him to die by smothering him with a pillow. Dame Esther Rantzen and a considerable majority of the UK population agree with her.

But the government still seems to be in thrall to the vocal minority who insist that assisted dying is unnecessary, fraught with risk, and wrong.

True, it is possible for pain to be controlled. But, as Ruddock says, that doesn’t always reliably happen. And pain is not the only thing that people have to endure in their last weeks, months and even years – loss of dignity, inability to move and sheer misery, to name but a few.

Obviously there need to be safeguards to ensure that vulnerable people aren’t coerced.

But some people seem unable to see that their opposition to everyone’s freedom of choice is equally coercive. They are at liberty to choose not to have assisted dying; they should not deny the same freedom to others.

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

Well done Luke Littler

Luke Littler has had a great run at the world darts championship, and for a 16-year-old the second prize of around £200,000 will buy him a few beers to celebrate with (except that he’s not old enough to drink them).

A great effort and only the start of a potentially fantastic career. Well done lad.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Melbourne, Australia

Lower taxes? Fix our public services first

It seems to be all about tax cuts at the moment – but personally, I don’t want them.

What I want is decent public services – in particular access to a doctor – but I accept that they have to be paid for. Vital services in this country are not free.

Doug Flack

Derby