TheBestWifesHusband

So, how much does it cost to live your life for a year?

And how much do you save per year?

It's not like we don't spend a ton of money on it.

The problem here lies in PFI.

Instead of building enough new hospitals to cover the need, and using public money to do so, to reduce the "bloating," successive governments since John Major have borrowed private money to build fewer, expensive, modern hospitals, and are now paying back in some cases up to 7x the cost in interest.

We do pay enough money into the hospital system, but the vast majority of it is being extracted by private finance and interest in the PFI schemes.

I'm from near Coventry, and a few decades ago the people of Coventry were asked what to do about our 2 dilapidated hospitals.

It was decided that we wanted to spend around £30m on fixing them up.

Instead the government ignored the people's decision, borrowed £440m to build a single "University Hospital" instead.

Construction was started in 2002, and to date the taxpayer has paid upwards of £1.2 billion to private investors for this £440m asset.

The hospital is setup (and has guaranteed) to also provide £3.3bn in revenue for the group that built it, Projectco over 30 years.

Essentially when we pay our taxes expecting them to be spent on things like hospitals, they're actually being used to service the debt that was borrowed to keep up the illusion of public spending of previous administrations.

The NHS is being used as an excuse to transfer wealth from the population to a few large investment a building companies. It's daylight robbery, and doctors are being asked to pay for it.

Spot on.

I'm just awaiting the "skills shortage in the NHS" and "Medical Students looking for work abroad" headlines, shortly before "G4S to take over hospital operations."

We will lose the NHS if we don't fight for it.

Having been escaping the reality of British life for over 18 years, I'd have to agree!!

Oh you're one of the tories in red ties then.

First this one gets in, then the other one, then back to the other, and nothing really changes.

Where's the old lefty labour when you need them?

Vote green.