Steve Brine, visiting the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, blamed flu and covid for this year's 'winter pressures' on the NHS (report, January 12).
Figures cited in Hugh Sanderson's letter (January 5) have already demolished Mr Brine's defence of the government's record on health spending.
His excuses for 'the huge rise in demand for acute services' are equally suspect.
Flu, covid and an ageing population haven't helped, but healthcare demand has also been affected by the government's economic and social policies over the last 13 years.
To mention a few examples: poverty and income inequality are both associated with poor health, but little has been done to improve either; in fact the gap between rich and poor has widened, with the income share of the richest rising from 7 per cent to 8.2 per cent between 2011 and 2020 (ONS data).
Poor housing is also detrimental to health, but since 2010 housing affordability has worsened, the average age of first-time house-buyers has risen to 32, and the National Housing Federation estimated in 2019 that over 8 million people were living in unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable homes.
Lastly, this country has very high levels of obesity (68 per cent of men and 60 per cent of women obese or overweight in 2022), yet the government promptly removed proposals to reduce the levels of sugar, salt and fat in processed food from Henry Dimbleby's recommended food strategy.
With millions of patients waiting for operations, and health staff feeling so overworked and underpaid that they have voted to strike, there is little evidence that governments since 2010 have been caring for the health of the NHS.
It doesn't look as though they've been paying much attention to public health either.
Carol Orchard
North View,
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