NHS crisis not down to immigration

Des Morgan confidently states (SA, February 3) “Anyone involved with hospital care will confirm there is no shortage of hospital beds.”

His confidence in this statement is characteristically misplaced. The BMA tells us: “The NHS has a shortage of hospital beds, with occupancy rates consistently exceeding safe levels.”

And: “Compared to other nations, the UK has a very low total number of hospital beds relative to its population.”

And: “Combined with staffing shortages, an insufficient core bed stock means that hospitals are less able to cope with large influxes of patients, for example during winter or periods of high demand.”

They point to the catastrophic decline in beds and proceed to further analysis.

The Health foundation explains: “The NHS has fewer beds per 100,000 population and shorter hospital stays compared to other health systems in comparable countries.”

And: “NHS (has) one of the lowest rates of hospital beds per person among OECD countries.”

And the influential Kings Fund points to very similar evidence. Everybody and everybody involved in hospital care confirms there is a terrible shortage of hospital beds.

Of course they point to how this is compounded “by discharge delays caused by pressures in social care.”

And for the BMA: “This issue highlights the importance of properly funding both health and social care systems so that they can effectively work together.”

Instead of calling for or supporting a collective struggle to force the kind of redistribution of wealth which could remedy this crisis, Des concludes by implying, wrongly, this has something to do with immigration, even though migrants use the NHS 40 per cent less than people born here.

Peter Smith

Woodside Avenue

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