February 18
2004
How it might be...
» Posted on February 18, 2004 04:13 PM » Category: Health

Anthony Browne has en excellent piece in The Times on how health care can be provided:


I was recently walking down a London street on a Sunday afternoon, when I decided to have a medical problem dealt with. I dropped into a medical centre I happened to be passing, which was open, and asked to see the specialist, who attended to me there and then with a smile. In a sparkling clean clinic packed out with a vast array of brand new medical equipment that seemed like something out of a science fiction film, dozens of tests were quickly done, which, as well as diagnosing my medical problem, checked out a range of other conditions from brain tumours to diabetes. The specialised medical apparatus that was prescribed for me was manufactured instantly.

I know you think that I am making this up, just teasing you, that it is too good to be true, but it is not. I promise you, within an hour of walking in without an appointment on a Sunday, I walked out of the optician with a pair of bespoke spectacles for my myopia and astigmatism, and a dream that one day all healthcare in Britain would be this way.

Of course, opponents of health service reform did not predict this when the General Ophthalmic Service was effectively privatised by Margaret Thatcher in 1989. They said it would ruin the service, when in fact it has turned it into by far the most successful sector of the medical service.


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Yes, the high-street optician is perfect model for a future healthcare system---a healthcare system that:

never has to operate invasively,
does not require full-time assistants for its practitioners during their interventions,
never treats inpatients,
supplements its income through huge margins on designer prosthetics,
prescribes no drugs,
seldom deals directly with fatal illnesses, and
only provides for those who are physically mobile.

The content of that article is a sort of right-wing equivalent of a Jenny Tonge outburst on Israel in its ideologically-motivated wilful superficiality. The error isn't so grave in this case, though.

Stated by: PooterGeek on February 18, 2004 11:50 PM

Mr Geek,

Don't be so obtuse.

The Opthalmic model is a perfect illustration of the Left's propensity to cry 'Wolf'' and then disappear down to Specsavers to get their latest frames.

It IS a model for Dentistry and to some extent for General Practice.

And the compettive element, service to the customer and high professional standards might also be a useful underpinning for the rest of our health service.

Stated by: GH on February 19, 2004 9:21 PM

I think we must Checkup ourselves every week because it is a model for Dentistry and to some extent for General Practice.

Stated by: Susan R on January 18, 2006 11:51 AM
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