I agree with not spending money on PFI hospitals, they're cheaper for that government in the short term because of the way the finances work but in the long term they cost the tax payer far more and the design has to be acceptable to the PFI funder who is often trying to do things on the cheap.
We use Language line and consultations are at least 10 minutes. My patients from overseas tend to fall into 2 groups, those who come with some English and rapidly improve and rarely bother with translators and those who speak minimal English when they arrive and don't make much effort to improve and are still wanting a translator 4 years later. Saying "oh they've just got poor English because they are ill" doesn't fit with life as I see it. I see no reason for tax payers to support people who don't want to learn English. A&E maybe sees a different subsection of patients. If they want to save money on English lessons then they can spend it on translators instead.
Not sure where I get money from prescribing tablets. That sounds like an idea from someone who has never spent any time in a GP surgery and if you're wanting to be a medical student would look very ignorant. A huge amount of money is spent on having pharmacists advising GPs as to how to get their prescribing budgets down and use cheaper alternatives. Yes we're encouraged to use statins to get the cholesterol level of people with heart disease and diabetes down, but that is evidence based and you'd be mad to say that we should save money by not prescribing statins to people who have had a heart attack. QAF doesn't pay us to give statins to the worried well.