IT was good to see Patrick Crowley, CEO of York Hospitals Trust, thank staff for their hard work during the current “Opal” crisis (The Press, January 12).

I wonder how many red alerts the hospital has declared over the last few years? It hasn’t just been a winter phenomenon.

Staffing problems are not just a new issue and those front line staff have been working flat out for years trying to keep services going.

Patients breaching the four-hour waiting times has increased significantly around the country since 2010.

Perhaps what is making this crisis “unprecedented” is the result of chronic underfunding for years coming to a crescendo and the closure of in-patient beds (Archways 22 beds closed at end of December), which we clearly cannot afford to do without.

Mainstream media is finally taking an interest in the unfolding crisis (thank you Kishan Rees, Defend Our NHS and other groups, and of course the wonderful British Red Cross).

Seeing that even Simon Stevens is saying NHS England have not got the funding they asked for, I would be very interested to know if the CEO of Humber Coast and Vale and Mr Crowley are going to stand up to Jeremy Hunt and Theresa May and demand appropriate funding immediately, to stop the imposition of STPs and the wholesale selling off of lucrative chunks of our NHS.

The people of York, in fact across the whole country, and our wonderful NHS staff deserve much better than what they have been experiencing over the last several years with this Government.

They deserve an NHS that is well funded and publicly owned.

Sheena Foxwell, On behalf of Defend Our NHS York, Wigginton, York