[Margaret Pilkington]

Guinness, as usual you are right( and i do not mean that in a snotty way).
This problem goes back a long way and it is multi faceted. It certainly predates this tory government.
I have been retired 14 years and we had problems finding beds during winter months when I was in post....many ops were cancelled and our beds given over to the medical teams.
The rot set in when business models were applied to health care, when politicians started to meddle in stuff that they knew nothing about(no change there then)...when they started applying target based care rather than care on a clinical need basis.

The other thing is that we fail to rake in money from the folk who are here and using the NHS when they should really be paying for their care.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility to organise some scheme to get the cash from health tourists..

We have more people livingon this small island and an ageing population so it should not be a surprise to anyone that the system is buckling uner pressure...it stands to reason that if more people use a service , the service is going to be stretched.

The general public have to bear some of the brunt too. Turning up at A&E with a minor aliment should be a criminal offence.
I have been in the situation of taking a history from a patient who presents as an emergency and when you ask how long they had this pain and they tell you two months...and they turn up at 10pm on a Saturday evening. It beggars belief.

I take your point though. Our representative is pretty much useless.