Immigrants clog the NHS?

It especially annoys me when I read the "Immigrants clog up the NHS" claptrap. Old people in need of expensive, recurring and long term care clog up the NHS - people like me in fact. Immigrants are normally younger, therefore healthy, and make few demands. If you see many Asians in hospital they will usually be older, they'll usually have been here many years, they'll usually have paid their taxes and NI Contributions, and so on.

Being married to an immigrant, I may have an axe to grind, but not a few of my friends are immigrants, and none of them fit the stereotype. My wife certainly doesn't clog up the NHS, despite being in an older age group. She works for it, has suffered stress because of it, and conscientiously does her utmost to provide the best possible service to its customers. She is not alone in that.

Last time I was briefly in hospital, in the cardiac unit, there were no immigrants among the patients, and several among the nurses, all of whom did a great job. When I was on the table the cardiologist giving me the benefit of her expertise was an immigrant, and the consultant in the department is at least of Asian descent, whether he is himself an immigrant or not.