POLLS regularly show the public is willing to pay more in tax if it is guaranteed to go to the NHS but polls, as Sir Humphrey Appleton memorably demonstrated, depend on a variety of assumptions. Your editorial ("Ring-fencing 'NHS tax' is risky and false", The Herald, June 16) rightly pointed out that hypothecation suggests the key factor in health care quality is the amount of money thrown at it.

We spend a similar proportion of our GDP on health as many EU nations but have fewer doctors, nurses and hospital beds. Patients face longer waiting times to access medical kit and drugs which are often far from" state-of-the-art".

The NHS is a monolithic monster with a culture problem and poor management who believe things can only be done one way and its always about the money. It's time to get real.

Rev Dr John Cameron,

10 Howard Place, St Andrews.