LAST month, we celebrated World Health Day which was dedicated to Universal Health Coverage.

Half of the world’s people still struggle to get basic medical help, and are forced to choose between food, shelter and life-saving drugs. But in the UK, we are incredibly lucky to have our NHS. Yet even here not all is well. Official data shows patient waiting times, bed shortages, and ambulance queues hit record levels over the winter. For example, almost 150,000 patients waited for more than 30 minutes before being admitted to A&E. Looking forward, the British Medical Association believes that we are now moving from winter crisis to year-round crisis.

Why are we in permanent crisis? Government suggests scope for efficiencies and reorganisations, but these bring little joy and are comparable to reorganising the deckchairs on the Titanic. An increasing and ageing population requires more resources dedicated to health and social care. The reality is that we spend much less on health than the French or Germans.

Prime minister May and health secretary Hunt have accepted the need for a longer-term plan and more funding.

All sounds very sensible.

Unfortunately, they have consistently failed to deliver, and “announced” new funding is often a recycling of previous available funding.

Our NHS is at breaking point. Our health service needs an injection of real new funding now. The British Medical Association believes that to meet comparable European standards, then we need to spend £7 billion a year more now, and the gap will rise to more than £11 billion over the next three years.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an immediate £6 billion a year to protect the NHS, paid for by an extra penny on income tax. They have also called for a crossparty agreement on long term funding, and a consultation on what the role of the NHS will be going forward.

Should we be spending more money on prevention and public health? Should we be spending more on community care? These options are all cheaper and better for patients than condemning them to overcrowded wards. The money raised will be guaranteed for the NHS and social care services, which are currently in crisis.

The debate over health needs to be conducted with more honesty. We will all need to contribute more, and the money needs to go direct to the NHS. Sir David Nicholson, who led NHS England for almost a decade, is among a group of senior health professionals and experts to back an increase in personal tax to provide the struggling services with an extra £6bn a year.

If we want to retain our NHS, we must give our doctors and nurses the funding they need to continue providing a world-class health service.

The option facing us is that we will join the other half of humanity which struggles to get universal health care.

Luigi Gregori, Charlton Road, Andover.