What do you expect from a Labour government.?

Eddie Ward, Crossgates, Radnor County

Would you enjoy some jollies over your morning tea?

I pay affordable health insurance premiiums from my retirement to the federal medicare and to my state retirement system. In return I get very expensive pharmaceuticals at low or no cost. I see any doctor or specialist at any time at no cost. Enter any hospital for almost any but the most esoteric procedures within a month. Receive any necessary therapy and medically required equipment at once. All at no cost.

The jollies part is that the American media holds UK health care as a shining example to be emulated. Mirabile dictu!

henry cowan, linthicum heights, USA/Maryland

I live in North Devon and I have had an arthroscopy on my knee within 4 months, and at my 6 week check up, I was offerred a complete knee replacement, which will be achieved within 5 months. There is a huge catchment area around Barstaple Hospital, so I think my treatment, and experience has been marvellous. I am 55, and look forward to continuing cricket, and doing the Two Moors Walk. I know that not all areas are as good, but let's have credit where it is due, please.

Richard Paines, Ilfracombe, England

The NHS will never deliver what it can until government stops changing its mind every time, we appoint either a new;

• Secretary of State
• Political Party
• Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Prime Minister
• Spin Doctor

I wonder how many Billions, yes Billions have been spent on making change just to allow these incoming people to inflict their presence. When will politicians grow up and help deliver a health service to be proud of instead of continually changing it to suit them. For change to take place it needs time to work through, will they never learn that to change something means it could be done better. If that is the case then our politicians of the past twenty years should be locked up and have the key thrown away as the billions they have spent they claim to improve the NHS has failed in all so many areas.
We joke about how many people it takes to change a light bulb, well how many politicians damaging the NHS does it take to finally improve it?

Paul Belguim, Manchester, UK

After being exposed to drug-resistant TB (which the Americans quarantine) it took the NHS 4 months to take X-ray, blood and sputum tests, and another 2 months to inform me of the results.

I contrast this with Government Ministers, with John Prescott rushed into hospital with a sniffle.

Orwell had it right. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". When has any Government Minister ever had to wait for treatment? They can always jump the queue.

Cynosarges, London, UK

Did not have any space to add few comments, also is the government totally unable to use any form of IT, surely emailing is not difficult, having a secured website for doctors should not be difficult especially is organised by the government, there are absolutely no excuse, and when the government is asked explanations as why this happened as usual we get ridiculous answers which do not mean anything at all, they simply try to cover themselves for their total ineficiency at all level.
Also we are supposed to be a 'democracy' well I must have missed somewhere the meaning of this world. The problem is that in England we may talk about it but the people are not prepared to voice their opinions strongly, mind thereagain when we do Blair has ignored every meaning of democracy. I despair but I despair with some kind of anger, we have not much really to look forward to, Brown!!! Cameron I wish he hurry up with a proper programme instead of being on his byke with his car behind. All a joke!

Catherine, Petersfield, UK

"Waiting list, what waiting list"?

John Prescott

Ken, Todmorden, UK

It is no wonder that, given the sensationalist, headline grabbing tactics of newspapers like yours, managements have to divert their time and resource from "the business" and try to manage "the media". You are being hypocritical to blame them.

John Turnbull, Bourne End, UK

Further confirmation that nothing this government says is to be believed. On any matter. We await Ms. Hewitt telling us that in some months that 2007 ha sbeen the "best year for the NHS". Whilst we all roll around on the floor pissing ourselves.

An absolute shower, as Terry Thomas would say.

Jeremy Poynton, Fromeville, 51st State

So this is how it works? You get an NHS in deficit and slate the government, saying there should be efficiencies. The government turns it round, allowing you to..... slate the government for allowing the NHS to go into surplus. Great stuff! Meanwhile, despite all the negative publicity, your report seem to actually show that the government is half way to meeting a target which many people would have thought impossible a few years ago - namely GP to treatment in 18 weeks or less.

James, London, UK,

Yes, it is insurance fraud. That is, it takes your money with the promise of providing health insurance to cover the costs of financially catastrophic illness, and then uses delays in treatments to avoid paying out. Or sometimes it just refuses treatment full stop, as with macular degeneration.

If the private sector did this, managers would go to jail. Its very simple: stop transferring the risks of catastrophic illness onto the people you are insuring. They are your risks. The whole point, and the only justification for making subscription to the NHS compulsory, is that it should transfer risks from the insured to the insurer, in this case the state.

Lets see written public definitions of what I am covered by the NHS for - what conditions and what treatments. And then provide them, with no delays or quibbles. What is so hard about that?

George Johnson, London,

whats new, Hewitt & co have been shown to mishandle the truth yet again. Still they face no sanction for their truth evasion.

Disgruntled Junior Doctor, London,

This is just the surface of the issue. More fundamental cuts are bing made. My wife is a community physio and she has had to refuse to issue walking aids that are required, cannot replace broken aids, leading to higher incidents of admission for fallers in the elderly. But thats not her concern because it's not her budget if they are admitted!
Mandatory training has been cancelled and staff posts have not just been frozen but taken away leading to the operation of a waiting list where before there wasn't one.

All of the reduction of heads has not affected the over inflated management layer within her trust with the CEO citing that its too expensive to pay managers off. Meaning that the ineffective idiots who couldn't manage it before are allowed to continued to be paid while patients are suffering.

This smacks of people chasing bonus's rather than holistically looking at the service required.

Ian Keens, Hoddesdon, UK

How about making the NHS a National Health Service - not a National Geriatric Support Service or Artificial Conception Service or any other sort of service dealing with anything other than illness?

So problems caused by natural ageing, the unfortunate natural inability of some women to conceive, etc., etc., would not come under its auspices.

Then the service could get on with returning people who have fallen ill to good health. Otherwise, as Running on Empty says, demand for 'treatment' will simply expand exponentially as people look to the NHS to fend off the natural vicissitudes of life.

Best wishes

Tony Jones, Grantham, Lincs

About £50M of that surplus belongs by right to the Staff and Associate Specialist doctors; they are the work-horses of the NHS, not consultants, not GPs, not trainees; the only group of workers in the NHS who have not had their contracts modernised. The DOH has been sitting on the paperwork for their new contract since November, and these doctors are being punished for the excessive rises that went to other groups. No-one seems to care that they work on to keep the NHS functioning in the midst of the junior doctor employment crisis while earning way below what they are worth for the privilege.

Christine MacLeod, Edinburgh,

The NHS has always been and will always be a bottomless money pit, however much money is thrown at it, it will never be enough.
First of all we must stop using it as a political football, there has to be concensus and agreement from all sides as to the way forward.
Secondly, there will have to some form of priority/rationing system, to select the more deserving cases, for example, should people expect to receive the same level of care in A&E after a binge drinking session.
Some very difficult choices will have to be made if the NHS is to continue in anything like the way we expect.

Running on Empty, Gerrards Cross, Leafy Bucks

Perhaps Im being cynical, but does a £500 milion surplus indicate that up to £500 milion of NHS cuts have been unecessary?

Bill Glanvill, Horsham, W Sussex