IT is mid-winter and the time of peak demand but the junior doctors are threatening a series of strikes and the nurses are campaigning against the change from bursaries to student loans for trainee nurses.

Should not David Cameron follow Jeremy Corbyn’s example of a reshuffle and appoint a Minister of Health who is committed to maximising the NHS’s resources at a time of maximum demand?

I am sure that all the people who are finding their appointments cancelled will agree.

At the same time a recent article (Echo, Jan 7) quotes a recent study finding that more and more GPs are leaving because of rising bureaucracy and reduced time for patient care.

Australia, New Zealand and other countries must be laughing.

We are spending billions training doctors and nurses and then many of them are emigrating for better wages and working conditions.

I wonder how many of them pay back their student loans? Government policies aimed at making short term savings are probably costing us billions in the long term and not providing the necessary services.

Brian Fiske, Darlington.