Dear Mr Bevan

I realise that you are no longer with us, but as the architect of the first National Health Service in the world I am sure that you are still proudly looking down on it. So I would not want you to be distressed by the parlous, disastrous and critical state into which a few claim it has now fallen.

Some say we are not spending enough money on the NHS and that, whilst opinion polls show overwhelming public support for increased taxes to pay for it, our government (who found billions of pounds to purchase a minority party to prop up them up in parliament) tell us there is no more money.

The NHS is in no danger of collapsing though, as it has a dedicated workforce who, for the last five years, have borne the brunt of austerity. Despite being overworked, stressed and suffering from poor morale, their commitment and passion knows no bounds. It’s so much cheaper to rely on them to work beyond their hours, do double shifts and cover for their non-existent colleagues than it is to properly fund the service.

It is rumoured that this staffing crisis is compounded by uncertainty around Brexit and that EU workers, on whom the Service depends, are deserting in droves. However, the occasional report that hospitals and care homes are struggling to fill vacancies is clearly either scare mongering by Remainers or fake news. There is obviously a golden opportunity here for English workers to fill those vacancies; the current era of near full employment cannot last and projections that our economy is dependent upon workers from overseas are surely more fake news.

You may have heard that many people voted for Brexit on the promise of additional spending of £350m a week on the NHS. Please be assured that the government’s continued talk about the brave new world that awaits us outside Europe means that this imminent cash injection will soon come to the rescue. You may disregard the prevailing economic opinion of slow growth outside the EU – this is simply ‘Remainer’ scaremongering. What does the governor of the Bank of England know anyway?

Thanks to 70 years of the NHS we are all living longer. That does mean that we have more older people needing care, but with so much cabinet chaos to deal with, it’s quite understandable that the government has reneged on a promise to publish proposals to address this. Besides, this means that more older people will be able to enjoy winter in a nice hospital ward rather than being at home. I’m sure no one will mind their routine operation being postponed as a consequence, and anyway we have plenty of hospital corridors to accommodate additional trolleys while A&E staff find beds for new patients.

You can rest easy, Nye; the NHS really is safe in our hands...