Underfunded - is my first reaction.
....and should be every sensible, thinking person's reaction. We have Jeremy Hunt's attempts to bully the junior doctors and debase their position with the imposition of a contract which will lead to vast increase in their unsocial hours and to tired doctors. A tired doctor is a dangerous one. All the media publicity devoted to this is a smokescreen to divert attention from the shockingly underfunded state of the NHS. The creeping privatisation of health care with large amounts of government funding going to shareholders and overpaid CEOs means that tax payers are obtaining decreasing value from their investment in the NHS. All this at a time when an aging population requires increased investment in health care not the reduction that we are suffering at present. This position is likely to be exacerbated by the fact that the one million plus foreign born NHS staff are feeling that they are no longer welcome in the UK because of the vicious anti-immigrant rhetoric promoted by Brexiteers. God knows what position the NHS would be in if even a quarter of the highly qualified staff decided to leave.
One of the main results of all this is the great lengthening of waiting time for NHS appointments across the board.
Where does this leave Dick Gaughan? I know from long conversations with him on the many times that he has stayed with us after being booked at the folk club we ran. I know him to be a man of principle. I know that he has had to wait for treatment for previous conditions.
Would he jump queue by going private? Would he try to have his own appointment brought forward at the expense of others? If you don't know the answer to both these questions, then you do not know Dick Gaughan.

I can only report that I feel very angry when I read uniformed, ignorant comments from an unnamed guest that read:-
what on earth has the NHS come to that he is not diagnosed and directed to the appropriate course of treatment at the EARLIEST opportunity.
Dick should be aware that there are many many people who care deeply for him are very concerned for his well-being are praying for him.