The NHS was a great factor simply because it belonged to us | @guardianletters

Aneurin Bevan, the wellness minister, visits Park hospital, Davyhulme, Manchester, for the official launch of the NHS in June 1948. Photograph: PA

Dr Nick Hayes writes in praise of the voluntary technique that helped to support many of the large acute hospitals offering care in the time period just before the introduction of the NHS (Letters, 9 May possibly). He suggests that “a weekly contribution of 2d or 3d per week” would offer sufferers with the cover they necessary for treatment in the voluntary hospital. Having worked as a property surgeon in two this kind of hospitals just before July 1948, I discovered things really various. Initial, the weekly contributions were nearer five shillings and, 2nd, the lady almoner’s department was the rigorous gatekeeper, guarding accessibility to the program. Individuals have been implies-examined to make positive that they certified for hospital remedy and had been consistently getting approached, or even badgered, to see if they could, or would, pay out much more.

Dr Hayes admits that care for the old, the chronic sick and mentally sick sufferers was patchy in numerous this kind of hospitals, it was virtually nonexistent. He also says that modern surveys and polls indicated that the majority of the population were largely satisfied with this technique, and this is undoubtedly correct, but there is presently a wealth of proof to indicate that individuals are just as happy with the services provided by the NHS, and probably a lot more so. From my expertise of the United States and a lot of elements of Europe, they are largely right in this belief.
Keith Anderson
Leeds

• I was born in the 1920s and am outdated adequate to bear in mind the wellness provision just before the days of the NHS. It was minimum for panel patients, and the medication availablefor most ailments was a bottle of the “mixture” or the “liniment” in a clear blue, brown or green bottle, dependent on the problem. It was made up at the surgical treatment by the medical professional or an employee from a row of unchanging bottles and jars on the doctor’s shelves. They did their greatest but had been entirely restricted by lack of funds.Of course it could be covered by a couple of pence a week and charity, but the expectation of life for the poorest was significantly modified as a outcome.

The NHS was a great factor since it belonged to us. It was not cold as charity but was a nationwide insurance-based mostly organisation. We all paid for it from our earnings when we have been youthful, doing work and fit, and we could all count on it when we necessary it.

If the funding is removed from this and drawn from earnings tax, it can be avoided by the wealthy, along with so numerous other taxes. Money for health will be viewed as charity that must only go to the deserving poor.

There need to be no ceiling on nationwide insurance coverage payments they need to be deducted at source from all salaries, and the money must be stored for a goal separate from revenue tax. If much more is needed, the charge should be enhanced and paid by every person in proportion to their pay.

The reason the wealthy who govern us want to privatise every little thing is so they can minimize the support to the bad and acquire the ideal for themselves as takes place in the US.
Deirdre Davey
Oxford

• I was born in 1936. My father had been unemployed for seven many years, and my mother required a caesarian segment. My father was called to see the almoner and asked if he could afford to pay out the fee. Naturally, he could not so had to strategy his father to borrow the money – humiliating for a guy aged 37. Thankfully, his father stumped up I might not be right here nowadays had he not. I nevertheless have the invoice “for maternity services” in the sum of two.five guineas.
Margaret Gooch
Portsmouth

The NHS was a great factor simply because it belonged to us | @guardianletters