[lettie]

I can say with absolute certainty that NHS wages have improved significantly over the last few years, especially in nursing/midwifery. The wages for these professions are however nowhere near those of the police force. Nursing was a traditionally female profession and policing traditionally male, so we are still a long way behind the police in pay. The NHS is funded by national insurance and tax contributions made by the people of this country. We have fewer young people paying tax and NI now and more claiming benefits. The average age of NHS workers is between 35-50 years old. When you look at immigration, the vast amount of asylum seekers coming into the country have medical problems eg HIV, TB, Hep B. All of these problems are expensive to treat and are treated at our taxpayers expense. Other immigrants, even when they come here to work, often bring dependents with them who don't work. Lastly, British citizens who marry people from abroad and then bring them into the country. These people will get free care because they are a spouse to a British citizen.
The only way to get more money into the NHS is to either Make people pay for their care and privatise the system or increase taxation to fund the increased demands on the services.
Privatisation or health insurance schemes would mean that we are back to a system where only the rich can afford healthcare and the poor are dying in the streets for want of treatment.
I think that all immigrants should be made to pay for their care for the first five years of living in this country until they have paid money into our system. This includes spouses of British citizens, but I also think that children's care should be free...