How best to ensure the future of the NHS | Letters

Robert Colvile of the Centre for Policy Studies denies plans to ‘demolish’ the NHS; Mita Dhullipala and Harrison Carter express the hopes and frustrations of medical students

Polly Toynbee (Opinion, 9 January) refers to a “sinister phalanx of Tory lobbies” pressing for “a royal commission on NHS funding”, with ourselves at the head – with a secret agenda to “demolish” the principle of a universal health service. This is impressively wrong. The call by Maurice Saatchi – the chairman of our thinktank – for a royal commission has been echoed by many medical professionals, as well as such non-Tory figures as Alan Milburn and Norman Lamb, both former health ministers. Our proposal states explicitly and repeatedly that the founding principles of the NHS must be respected, and fully accepts that additional funding will be needed: all we ask is that the commission examines alternatives for this beyond general taxation, for the simple reason that the public will almost certainly be reluctant, or simply unable, to pay the colossal amounts required on current trends.

Nor is our proposal limited to NHS funding alone, as Polly also suggests: we argue that a royal commission should examine the alarming gap in health outcomes between rich and poor, the linkages between health and social care, the case for and against greater private sector involvement, and so on. There are millions who do not have the choice to opt out. We owe it to them to work out what the NHS could be doing better – and to put it on a sustainable footing for the coming decades.
Robert Colvile
Director, Centre for Policy Studies

Continue reading... January 11, 2018 at 01:22AM