YOUR front-page headline, “NHS at Breaking Point” (The Herald, January 16), says it all. The last six months have been a revelation to me.

I recently sent an email to Shona Robison, the Health Minister, suggesting that instead of telling us what the Government was going to do for the NHS in the future, she should be doing something now before it collapses. Yet again we are told about a £2 billion increase in spending in the next few years. I duly received a reply on behalf of the minister telling me about future plans and pointing out that if I have a complaint regarding the treatment my son is receiving, I should first use the well-established complaints procedure to inform the relevant health board of my concerns.

During these six months of hospital visiting, it is obvious to me that the biggest problem is one of staffing. How can running a ward where complicated operations are routinely carried out with the minimum number of qualified nurses provide the care that is needed for the wellbeing of the patients? No amount of complaining to the health boards will make any difference. They do not have the resources they need. The Government must act now before it is too late and if that means increasing income tax so be it. If we want the best, we must be prepared to pay for it.

Alistair Dunlop,

8 Pipers Road, Cairnbaan, Lochgilphead, Argyll.

EVERYONE can agree how critically important our health is. Equally, the stresses within the NHS are becoming ever clearer both north and south of the Border (“NHS at breaking point”, The Herald, January 16). The challenges of meeting the complex needs of a growing elderly population, combined with the impact of unhealthy lifestyles and peaks in winter demand, are at times almost overwhelming our doctors and nursing professionals.

The solutions are not easy and do not readily fit the demands of political expediency. Perhaps both the UK Prime Minister and Scotland’s First Minister should reach out across the political divide and to those who dedicate their lives to working in the front line of our health services to seek a cross-party and expert consensus on the best way forward.

The dedication of those working in the NHS is unquestionable, as is their skill in performing what appear to lay people as medical miracles as lives are saved or positively transformed from the midst of acute health problems. Those who have health professionals to thank for overcoming illnesses can never properly repay their help. Yet ensuring they have the resources to do their work properly would be a great start.

This requires facing up to the politically sensitive issues of increasing funding, whether through taxes or introducing some degree of charging. Countries with health services that appear to have moved ahead of the UK in terms of the quality of their health provision have done so by spending more of their GDP to deliver the best that modern health care can offer. OECD figures show France and Germany, for example, spend about 11 per cent of GDP on healthcare while the UK has slipped to 8.5 per cent on the same basis. The tough decisions that need to be made in funding and reform of the NHS cannot be made while those making the decisions are concerned with short term political popularity.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.

THERE are others smarter and better qualified than myself to address the problems of our beleaguered NHS, but risking likely backlash, I venture to suggest than in the medium and longer term some of us could ease the pressures by smoking less, drinking less, eating more wisely, and by taking more responsibility for our own wellbeing.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.