Pensioner David Martin took drastic action when he heard he would have to wait a year for urgent treatment under the NHS.

Private care in the UK would have cost him £22,000 which he could not afford. So he flew to South Africa and had a triple heart bypass carried out there immediately for £8,000.

It was a wise move by Mr Martin, from Crawley, who thinks he would not have survived if he had stayed at home.

In the forthcoming Budget, Chancellor Gordon Brown is going to pump millions, if not billions, more pounds into the NHS.

Even with all this cash, which we will all pay for through extra tax or National Insurance costs, there will still be stories such as that of Mr Martin.

Our expectations of the NHS are unrealistic in an age where many treatments such as heart-bypass operations are complicated and costly.

Countries where treatment is swifter than in the UK are usually those with a different method of financing the health service.

Most people will welcome Mr Brown's decision to put more money into the NHS which will help pay for more specialist treatment.

However, the Chancellor should also be sanctioning a look at other methods of funding such as private insurance so that health does not become a running financial sore for the country.