Sir, So, the British Government, not content with ruining their own National Health Service have now turned their attention to the Spanish Health Service. How dare they come over here and steal away our medical staff? Instead of offering large incentives to Spanish doctors and nurses I suggest they pay their own health workers a decent wage together with less working hours. That way more staff will feel valued and therefore inclined to stay and work in the public sector. By all means send a team from Britain here to study how a national health system should be run efficiently and cost effectively to reduce waiting lists and cut the appalling waste which occurs in every hospital in Britain. British doctors and nurses are undervalued, underpaid and overworked and now must be thoroughly demoralised by the fact that the Government has seen fit to import staff from Spain rather than looking to improve conditions for its own medical professionals.
If they continue to poach staff from here the Spanish National Health system will suffer from shortages and therefore the people living in Spain will ultimately suffer. The Balearic government is working very hard to reduce waiting lists and have succeeded but for how much longer if Britain continues to entice trained personnel away? Personally I find the health care here in Majorca to be excellent and have nothing but praise for all the staff I come into contact with, having a diabetic husband and a handicapped daughter. I would hate to see the level of care provided to them and the many thousands like them be reduced simply because Britain cannot get its act together and treat its health workers with the respect they deserve.
Frances McErlane
English (and proud of it) by birth, Majorcan resident by choice