Finally got around to this one.
KH The road to hell in 2001 is paved with the good intentions of 1945. AC I wonder where the good intentions of 2001 will lead? arthur cordell -----Original Message----- From: Keith Hudson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 7:54 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Brian McAndrews; Harry Pollard Subject: Free welfare I (was Re: Fwd: WTO/GATS - a Coup against Democracy) The National Health Service in the UK is the most prized welfare service of all. Of course it is. It is absolutely free! The National Health Service is particularly prized by 4 in 10 of the population, according to a London Ambulance Service survey, because they welcome the free transport service it provides. Among the emergency telephone calls recorded by the LAS are the following: "Can you take me to the cash machine near the hospital and bring me back home, please?" "I have just woken up and have a bad toothache." "I have been to a dance at XXXXX (a village outside London) and there are no taxis available at this time of night." "I am drunk and need hangover treatment." Another 4 in 10 of the emergency phone calls which actually convinced the LAS to send an ambulance to the scene of an accident turn out to be hoaxes. The above are relatively trivial causes of the some of the vast over-expenditures and inefficiencies of the NHS. Every Emergency and Accident Ward in the NHS now has to have security guards to protect nurses and doctors from physical assault from drink- and drug-crazed individuals who wander in. My experience of prostate cancer which necessitated 35 daily X-Ray treatments (each taking less than 5 minutes) took 11 months from start to finish. I didn't actually start treatment until month 9. Any quarter-way efficient organisation could have done all this comfortably within a two month period. The road to hell in 2001 is paved with the good intentions of 1945. Keith Hudson __________________________________________________________ "Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say." John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
