article_snippet.sent: NHS finances are so dire that patients could soon be forced to pay to use basic services such as GPs, doctors leaders warned last night.
article_snippet.sent: All three major parties have denied there will be any end to the principle that NHS should be free at the point of use.
article_snippet.sent: In an interview with the Guardian, Dr Mark Porter said of the parties fighting the election:
article_snippet.sent: they said in 1950 that a Labour government wouldn’t introduce charging and a Labour government did.
article_snippet.sent: The introduction of prescription charges prompted NHS founder Nye Bevan to resign from Clement Attlee’s government in April 1951.
article_snippet.sent: Dr Mark Porter said it was ‘inescapable’ that Clement Attlee’s government would consider introducing fees as a way of tackling the £30billion budget gap that NHS England has forecast will open by 2020 unless it achieves it target of £22billion in efficiency savings and receives £8billion of extra annual funding.
highlights_snippet.sent: NHS England forecast a £30bn budget gap  by 2020 unless savings made .