So much for New Labour’s “24 hours to save the NHS”

It's not only at York Hospital. There have been severe cuts to community nursing, learning disability and mental health services with several York units closing in the last year.

The former Selby and York PCT had to bring in "turnaround teams" (accountants) to tell them how many millions they were overspent, which they knew anyway. The debt then became hundreds of thousands of pounds greater to pay for the accountants.

So much for New Labour's "24 hours to save the NHS". David Cameron's Blue Labour would be no better. Sadly, the three old failed parties avoid talking about what is wrong for fear of offending someone or losing their core vote.

Labour's disastrous immigration policy brought in thousands of "health tourists". They get free operations, we get the bill and longer waiting lists. Stealing doctors and nurses from Third World countries, as we have, creates more misery overseas and increases pressure for immigration. We should pay our staff decent wages, not loot the Third World.

PFI is a disaster, with the final cost of projects far more than it should be, while Labour's policy of privatisation by stealth is something of which Cameron's Blue Labour would be proud.

There are more NHS managers than there are beds and there are more Labour cuts to come. Nationally 1,000 beds could be lost this year.

Switch wages from bureaucrats to more home-trained medical and nursing staff. If we must spend more on health, stop the £160 billion the Government is pouring into the European Union Army. Stop interfering in other parts of the world, stop spending money on illegal wars and put our own people first.

Eric Wood, Oakdale Road, Clifton Moor, York.