Keith Hudson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>This morning I had my last session of X-Ray treatment for prostate cancer.
Great. I hope the outcome is fully successful.
[...]
>I still haven't had time to organise my thoughts about the NHS in order to
>write something for FW, as requested by a subscriber.
[...]
>So for the time being I'll confine myself to quoting two brief paragraphs
>of an article written by Prof Norman Barry (University of Buckingham).
>He writes:
><<<<
>How is it that the fourth biggest economy in the world has such a poor
>health care system? The figures speak for themselves: in contrast with the
>UK's 7 per cent, the US spends 14 per cent of gross domestic product on
>health, Germany 11 per cent and France 10 per cent. When it comes to
>measures such as doctors per 1,000 of population, Britain is almost a
>third-world country, having about the same number as South Korea or Turkey.
What a goofball comment. Only someone with a really twisted agenda
would offer the US rate of spending on health care as a goal to
emulate, considering how poorly actual care is delivered there for
anyone outside the wealthy elite. And the guiding philosophy of
the private health industry in the US is "charge what the traffic will
bear, cuz folk will part with their last dime when their health is
at stake". In my work, we often make use of devices originally
intended for the medical field, and I encounter various examples
of spectacularly overpriced hardware in the trade catalogues. I'm
sure this is no news to anyone - that 14% is not being wisely
spent in any measure of the term. The process is similar to the
oft cited excesses of military contracting: if the word "medical"
is attached, the price of hardware seems to magically quadruple.
Not to say the UK system is beyond criticism, but at least make
it sensible. Lots of countries are delivering better _overall_
care for all their citizens without coming near that 14% mark.
Heck, if we in Canada were to spend that much, our medical system
would be gold-plated.
-Pete Vincent
