Julie Freedman (Guardian, October 31) is quite wrong to blame so-called health tourists for the deficit in NHS spending.
The £2billion the government claims healthcare for overseas visitors costs the NHS is a drop in the ocean in its £91billion annual budget.
But this figure is arrived at by combining estimates and out of date figures – it is not reliable.
The Tories want to charge foreign visitors £200 each for using the NHS.
This is thin end of the wedge. It is designed to soften us up for the introduction of health charges for UK citizens, undermining the core value of the NHS as being free for all at the point of use.
It is the £20billion in cuts this government is pushing though alongside wholesale privatisation that is really damaging our health service.
Myths about health tourism are designed to divert our attention from the Tories’ efforts to destroy our NHS.
Tony Phillips, Address supplied
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