ALL of us, over the course of our lives, have had reason to be truly thankful to the NHS.

We all agree we must be able to access its help on the basis of need, not ability to pay.

So why the problems?

Endless re-organisations since the 1980s have not helped, particularly when ideologically driven. Our County Hospital does a good job looking after us but it was financed by Labour’s extraordinarily expensive Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme.

Our GPs are under huge pressure, and surgeries across the county are finding it difficult to recruit. Demands are changing and increasing: we live longer; we mistreat ourselves more with alcohol, drugs or excessive food; and we are better at finding new treatments.

Two questions: Money is tight, so how do we pay for it? How can we help the NHS adapt to changing demand?

The NHS has said it needs £8bn more every year by 2020. The Liberal Democrats, so far alone, have agreed to that increase and have a clear plan to fund it.

We want to integrate health and social care so that people who should be at home do not have to stay in hospital. To address the crisis in mental health, we want to establish genuine parity with physical health. In Herefordshire, plans are already laid to do both.

Do I want to privatise the NHS? No, of course not. I recognise, however, a role for charitable and private organisations.

The Air Ambulance and St Michael’s Hospice, for example, receive no public funding but are very highly valued by everyone.

The last government introduced private sector providers to the NHS and, on average, paid them 11% more than NHS providers.

Liberal Democrats in government have made that illegal and private companies’ contracts currently account for 6% of the entire NHS budget.