HIGH Wycombe's Conservative MP Sir Ray Whitney called for a rethink about the NHS when he spoke in the budget debate.
Sir Ray says the country cannot couple a free NHS with spending at the level of countries like Germany.
The NHS was a great idea in 1944 and for more than 50 years people had tried to make it work but there now had to be some new thinking.
"I do not think that is too much to ask," he said.
Sir Ray, who retires as MP at the next election, has been saying the NHS needs restructuring ever since he was a junior health minister in the mid 1980s.
He criticised the Chancellor for saying spending on health would go up 50 per cent in five years. Even if it did, said Sir Ray, spending would would still be £200 per head below what they spent in Germany.
He said: "The fact is we can't possibly spend on health the same amount as Germany totally out of the Exchequer. It would break the bank. And if we don't pay the appropriate amount for health we shall have a third world level of health care."
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