£6 million deficit?

Dear Mr Browne

You have asked Prime Minister Tony Blair, “Why is Musgrove Park Hospital, struggling with £6 million deficit?”.

Mr Blair has replied, that although there has been extra money, all health trusts will have to live within their means.

No one has pointed out that the practice of medicine is a highly dynamic pursuit of advance in the fight against disease, which can become extremely expensive.

When the State assumes responsibility for financing such advancement, it must be recognised that extra new money will constantly be required.

Provided we recognise that the health of the Nation is the most valuable resource possessed by the Nation, we shall see and understand that extra new money, created specifically for that purpose and spent wisely and well, cannot cause inflation however great the sum. Making economies, in vital and essential progress, spells economic suicide.

Obtaining that additional new money, by letting banks create and issue it as credit, is also economic suicide. That is the only option that Tony Blair allows himself, because there is a consensus in Parliament, that if the Government itself created additional new money, it would cause runaway inflation.

Although that could be true, in the case of additional new money for medical progress, it does not have to be true. You need to know and understand this, because it is knowledge not yet taught at the London School of Economics.

The Lib Dems should make these scientific facts known and give themselves lots of power.

Doctor Edward C Hamlyn MBChB

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