USA trip is bad news for NHS
Your article "Doctors' £40,000 trip to the US" (Mercury, February 14) reminds me of Dr Shepherd's letter to the Mercury last November, when he said he had "never been so worried about the future of the NHS general practice".
Why would our local Clinical Commissioning Group doctors want to visit the USA, a country where access to health services is available only to those who can afford private insurance? And why find out about "competitive environments"?
Probably because the Leicester CCG is part of the new structure created by the Government's 2012 Health Bill, which encourages outsourcing of health services to private companies.
The same Bill also recommends the use of standard "personal health budgets" for all – a system that will limit the amounts available to patients with the greatest need.
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Leicester doctors do not need to spend public money visiting the USA. The Government has already had plenty of "advice" from American management firms, for example McKinsey, when it designed its Bill: a Bill we should demand be reversed.
Give us back our NHS: free to all at the point of delivery, based on clinical need, not ability to pay
Arthur Tolton, Leicester.
I travelled on a bus into Leicester via The Newarke and encountered the latest of the mayor's follies.
Closing off the left-hand lane as an experiment is futile – it is obvious that the result would be congestion.
Our bus was forced to queue to reach the top to make a turn into Pocklington's Walk – normally it would travel unimpeded in the left-hand lane.
While crawling up the street two police cars on an emergency call were also delayed by congestion.
Dare I suggest the mayor would share my point of view if he was forced to endure this stupidity every day on his way to work?
Come on, remove the barriers and let common sense prevail for once.
Phil Doores, Enderby.
Comments
by depreg
Monday, February 25 2013, 5:22PM
“The NHS is not "free to all at the point of delivery" and hasn't been for a very long time. There are many things you have to pay for, for example prescriptions, dental treatment, opticians charges and, above all else, care in old age.”