Steve Halden writes; the reason the NHS is “on the point of collapse” is people “flooding into A&E”. He says it’s because of immigration.

Health researcher Alyson Pollock argues differently, “Over two and half decades successive governments have closed over 50% of NHS beds. In 2013/14 there were 135,000 NHS beds compared with 297,000 in 1987/8.”… ‘which means medical patients are being displaced on to surgical wards, leading to cancelled elective surgery and increased waiting times’.

“At the same time, the government is closing services in primary care and local authorities are axing services in social care. GP out-of-hours services are no longer functioning as they should and neither are social services and community support.”

She explains that this puts ‘extra pressure on A&E’.

At the same time A&E departments have been closed all over the country. The Government has closed 53 out of 230 walk in centres.

Professor Pollock goes on to point out that attendance at the large hospital based A&E departments has hardly changed since 2003.

The growth is largely in the minor injury and walk in centres and can be explained by the above mentioned cuts.

All against a backdrop of NHS funds draining away through PFI and privatisation.

The immigration bogey is dredged up, by tabloids which always opposed the NHS anyway, for one purpose and that’s to stand in the way of a serious defence of the NHS.

The choice is to fight collectively in defence of the NHS, or whine about immigration.

Peter Smith Woodside Avenue Swindon