EVERY year millions of pounds are poured into the NHS. Every year there is a winter health crisis and every year the NHS is kicked around as a political football by every political party.

Before the NHS was established, health care for the majority in the UK was at best patchy and at worst unaffordable and non-existent, with women, children and the elderly suffering the most. Its founder, Aneurin Bevan, envisaged that, in time, the establishment of the NHS would improve the nation’s health and that the demand for its services would decrease; the opposite has happened.

At present, some 40 per cent of all health problems are as a result of lifestyle choices. Added to this there is an expanding ageing population with accompanying health and social care needs. It is clear that the NHS in it present form is not fit for purpose and that long-term planning and restructuring are required.

It is also clear that this task is too important for the short-term vision of all the political parties. We need this to be taken out of the political arena and placed with a Royal Commission made up of experts in the fields of medicine and health and social care who would be charged with planning a National Health Service for the next 30 or more years, not the a five-year political cycle.

Paul Lewis,

99 Guardwell Crescent, Edinburgh.

DR Gerald Edwards (Letters, January 4) finds that the daily headlines reporting SNP failures suggest that independence would be catastrophic.

He should not believe everything he reads in the newspapers. Were he to look beyond often reflexively hostile headlines and seek out the evidence, he would find that the health service in Scotland is better run than elsewhere in the UK; that attainment of school leavers has increased steadily since 2007; that pre-school childcare is being transformed; that significant progress is being made on reducing Scotland’s carbon footprint; that the Tories’ senseless welfare policies are being mitigated; and that Scotland puts the rest of the UK to shame by its inclusive policy towards refugees.

At the same time, more progressive taxation has been introduced, large-scale infrastructure projects have been completed, free prescriptions, care in old age and university tuition have been maintained. There is more to do. But that these measures have been achieved under the limited powers available to the Scottish Government serves to underline what more we should expect in an independent country.

Paddy Farrington

46 Marchmont Road, Edinburgh.

THE issue of hospital hygiene as raised by Patricia Allison (Letters, January 5) invites comment. BBC Scotland reported a visit of primary age youngsters to a care home for the elderly. The friendly interaction was somewhat spoiled by hugging and kissing. Surely such well-intended gestures should be discouraged especially in hospital or care home facilities.

Allan C Steele,

22 Forres Avenue, Giffnock.

SHAME on the UK Government. Cancel Trident because we cannot afford it and give us back our NHS.

Linda FitzGerald,

Dalerb, Craignavie Road, Killin.