I say bury the NHS, and I’m a doctor

As a retired doctor of 73, I still have an inkling of what is going on. My recent surgery was successful, and my thanks goes to all, from the telephone staff on the patient services, to the nurse who told me I could keep my knickers on, to the anaesthetist who talked over all my options and the surgeon who finally got to cut me up. They were all fantastic. To people who say, ‘The NHS, where would we be without it?’ my reply would be: ‘Better off!’ The staff are brilliant, overworked, over-blamed and ridiculously underpaid. But the electorate needs to wake up. This system is dangerous and costing lives. I could detail a whole list of issues that showed staff doing the nearly impossible. The system is a national shame. The NHS needs burying quickly. The standard of our care is well behind other comparable countries because we have an outdated, old fashioned, top down led, management centric, politically interfered with, behemoth from the past. It is like a rusty bus from 1947, with old bits falling off it, that we are kidding ourselves is pacing it down the motorway. It is not. And it needs more than a lick of paint and an oil change. Dr Nik Howarth, Nuneaton