I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent person yet I have no idea what can be done to sort out the mess that is the NHS.

I watch The Daily Politics most days and think that what Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt are saying makes sense then I listen to Jeremy Corbyn and he seems to make sense too.

My wife is a staff nurse and her ward is currently short of four nurses which gets worse when one is on holiday or off sick.

The Royal College of Nursing continually upgrade the entrance requirements to become a nurse and now it requires a university degree. Why? All this does is to ensure that those that have the aptitude to become nurses can't get a foot through the door and the newer intakes are those with university degrees but no aptitude for the job and having a university degree why would they want to be a lowly paid nurse anyway.

To compound matters the bursaries that were available to help fund training have now been taken away and anyone stupid enough to want to become a nurse have to fund four years training out of their own resources

Ban smokers and junk food addicts from accessing the NHS.

Problem solved.

Big chest and massive boobs

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I think he whooshed you good and proper.

I didn't have Matt down as standing outside McDonalds having a fag.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

Private health care the UK way is a disaster waiting to happen. The French and German private health care models are exceedingly efficient, heavily regulated and serve the people's interests and still provide profit to private companies.

In the UK, private health care really only functions to 'jump the queue' due to the underfunding of the NHS (and the failure of successive governments to raise taxation revenues to pay for funding, primarily on the profit of companies benefiting from Free Movement, that has increase pressure on the NHS).

Personally, raise taxes, to properly fund education and health care across the UK. Everyone who is a UK citizen should be in a position where they can expect good return from the NHS and it to function.

It can never be an efficient financial entity like a business, because it can only ever be reactive.

Realistically, private health care in the UK really survives by piggy backing off the NHS. It doesn't have to provide the key front line services which are costly and unpredictable (Accident and Emergency and the assorted departments that run alongside that). It also tends to 'borrow' from the NHS equipment etc by paying for it as it uses, rather than having to own it.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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Those people pay tax and NI (indeed, in many cases additional taxes). Lets not turn into a health fascism state (they also die younger on average, and thus cost the state less in old age care and support).

We could penalise people who play sports - as they're likely to suffer injuries that the NHS will need to treat.

On the flip side, if we do, I would like a tax rebate as I don't have children (so that's say 25 years of tax I've spent, that others have indulgently had as child benefit, education and health care). As I'm 45 without kids, and never going to have kids.

The NHS must be for all of the people, all of the time, irrespective of their lifestyle or choices. The point of democracy and freedom, is we have to accept that others are different, make different choices and are entitled to do so, as are we.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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