Nothing less than fundamental change is needed in order to bring NHS spending
under control. The results of your poll showing that the public is willing to pay
higher taxes in support of further funding is well intentioned, but merely a
re-statement of Gresham's Law: Good money after bad. The NHS does a superlative
job attempting to do the manifestly impossible: providing a world-class health
service to all, on demand, from taxation and borrowed money. It is against the
background of an ageing population and those who believe that there is an off-the-shelf solution to every medical problem, cost of increasingly sophisticated treatments and a large and complex organisation, employing over 1.25m which, as previous
re-organisations have shown, is extremely resistant to change.

Sixteen million patients began NHS treatment last year, up over 5.1% on the previous
12 months. When Beveridge set up the NHS in 1948, his assumption was that it
would pay for itself by improving the health of the nation.This Panglossian notion
is now far removed from reality, as never before. An alternative  model must be
developed, perhaps based on more successful healthcare systems in other countries,
such as a combination of public and private provision. The sacred cow's days are
clearly numbered, especially when it appears that, in terms of process, the UK is
an international leader in healthcare, while outcomes - the number of patients kept
alive - reveals a more pessimistic picture.