Old people "suck up" NHS budget not immigrants, said furious caller

14 November 2019, 15:19

The NHS's issue is not immigrants, it is "old people [who] suck up most of the budget," a furious caller told Shelagh after it was reported A&E delays have hit their worst level since records began.

Toby from Queen's Park called himself an "un-repenting Remoaner" and said that immigrants are "the lifeblood of any country.

"Whether they're economic immigrants or otherwise, they're the people who make things go."

He continued that "it's absolutely obvious" that the UK need as many trained nurses and doctors as possible and "we're going to have to pay for them to come from outside because apparently there's one in ten vacancies in the NHS."

"The principle problem about the NHS is the idea that has been sold to the British public is that it is greater than sliced bread," Toby said, and insisted he was "absolutely certain" no other country would swap their health system for ours.

"We have got an exponentially increasingly expensive health system," he said. As progression in science has meant people live longer, he continued, "old people suck up most of the budget - I am one, I know. That of course is completely unsustainable in the long term."

Toby the only way to tackle this problem, and the issues surrounding social services, is a consensual cross-party approach.