I WOULD like to comment on Winchester MP Steve Brine’s ASKtheNHS meeting.

The panel, members of the Clinical Commissioning Group, spoke about outcomes, transformation and modernisation; familiar buzzwords of the boardroom.

Richard Samuel, the Sustainability and Transformation Plan lead from NHS South Eastern Hampshire CCG, delivered perhaps the most telling quote of the evening: “It’s incredible that 98% of NHS interactions are face-to-face, while I can do all of my banking online.”

Let that sit with you; this executive in charge of deliver “transformation”, which by his own admission is £550m of annual “savings” to HIOW NHS, compared essential healthcare services to online banking.

Mr Brine seemed pleased at the close of the meeting, telling the assembled public that he has worked closely with Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, who has been “honest about the money” that the NHS is receiving, saying: “They asked for £8bn and we have given them £10bn.”

This is not an honest remark: George Osborne promised £8bn for the five year period from 2016-17 to 2020-21, in addition to £2bn to allocated for 2015-16 in his Autumn Statement in 2014.

The current prime minister and her MPs have since been claiming that the total £10bn is being delivered over and above the original promise, which is utterly bogus. Simon Stevens has also said publicly that his blueprint for the NHS in 2014 said the Health Service may need up to £21bn between then and 2020, and £8bn only if vast improvements were made to public health and social care.

Honest about the money? Hardly.

Pete Hayward, Winchester Constituency Labour Party.