JULIAN Sturdy claims (The Press, January 16) that today’s hospital backlogs are due to the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That’s not the whole story.

According to the British Medical Association, quoting NHS figures, in November last year 7.19 million people were waiting for care.

But according to the same source, in December 2019 just before the pandemic, after nine years of Conservative government, already 4.42 million people were awaiting treatment – more than half today’s total.

That pre-pandemic backlog, together with 99,924 NHS staff vacancies, led not only to treatment delayed but treatment withdrawn.

In June 2020 young mother Kelly Smith died while her successful cancer treatment was “paused” for 12 weeks, because of pandemic pressure on a hospital whose spare capacity had been removed. Her case was not unique.

For such needless tragedies, and all the troubles of today’s understaffed, under equipped and underfunded NHS, Julian Sturdy and his party bear a heavy responsibility. In recognition of this he could at least have given Press readers the full story, instead of pretending that only the pandemic and invasion are to blame.

John Heawood,

Eastward Avenue, York

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Striking is human right

LAST week, in defence of his plans to limit the rights of workers in education, health, transport, energy, fire services and border control to strike, Rishi Sunak told parliament that Conservative proposals were supported by the International Labour Organisation.

He claimed that Government proposals simply mirror legislation in France and other European countries.

Turns out that all this was untrue. What a surprise.

In France, for example, the so-called "minimum service" laws simply require unions to give 48 hours notice (five days notice in the case of health workers) of the intention to strike in order to give employers the time to organise other staff to cover. In the UK this notice period is already two weeks.

The right to strike, along with the right to protest, the right to a fair trial, the right to life and liberty, to equal treatment under the law, etc. are all fundamental human rights agreed in the United Nations Charter of Human Rights.

The world rightly condemns nations such as Iran and Afghanistan when they ignore fundamental rights in their treatment of women. This failing Government should apply itself to addressing the problems in the NHS instead of attacking nurses' fundamental human rights.

Christian Vassie

Blake Court, Wheldrake, York

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