The National Health Service was introduced on July 5, 1948, as a universal health care system providing everyone with the medical and nursing care they need free at the point of use.

It is not a charity, as we all pay for it through our taxes to relieve our worry in times of illness. It is therefore our NHS and not for sale.

York and Scarborough Defend our NHS will be holding a stall from 10.30 to 12.30 on Friday July 5 next to the statue of Constantine by the York Minster to commemorate 76 years of our NHS.

Despite under-investment, long waiting lists and increased privatisation, the NHS will survive as long as people are prepared to fight for it.

We will be using the birthday to thank all the NHS staff - from porters, cleaners and catering staff to nursing and medical staff - for their hard work and their sustained support of NHS hospitals and community services.

Please join us for a few minutes to sign our NHS birthday book with your thoughts and hopes for the NHS of the future and to give thanks for any NHS care received by yourself, friends or family.

Following the commemoration we will be handing in the NHS birthday book to York NHS Trust.

Gwen Vardigans, York and Scarborough Defend our NHS group, Acomb, York

 

Overseas vote farce

My wife and myself are registered as overseas voters and our application for postal votes for the election were received by City of York Council on June 4, 2024.

By June 28 we had still not received any papers. I queried this delay with the ‘elections officer’ for City of York Council and received the following response: '

All postal votes received after May 31 are dispatched on June 26. Your postal vote application was received on June 4. This is a pre-arranged schedule with our printers and Royal Mail.’

So our postal votes had been sitting on someone`s desk at the council for more than three weeks because of some clown's ‘pre-arranged schedule’.

The chances of our votes being counted are minimal. An absolute shambles.

Phil Hodgetts, Bad Ragaz, Switzerland

 

Less sport on TV, please

Does it ever occur to TV producers that there are many viewers not particularly interested in sport? Yet both BBC and ITV are cancelling much-watched programmes in favour of fanatics who probably ordinarily never watch much in the first place.

Come on! Get it right please. Sport on one side only.

Mrs Eunice Birch, Sutton on Forest, York