I have always rather liked Andrew Lansley.
But he is hot on the heels of Michael Gove's "If your local school is too prolie or darkie, then we'll cut the building of and repairs to schools for proles and darkies so that you can set up your own school, even though you could perfectly well afford to go private".
Lansley's variation is "You can have any treatment you like - heard on the radio, seen on the telly, read on the Internet, anything - and the taxpayer will pick up the tab, whether or not your doctor thinks that you, or anyone, should have it".
Gove's and Lansley's party has very limited contact with the public services, and it simply does not begin to understand them. Therefore, it ought not to be put in charge of them.
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A bit off topic, but how often does British television or radio show adverts for medication or other medical products, including different types of treatment? U.S. television and radio is full of adverts for medical products, especially prescription medication.
ReplyDeleteI personally think there may be good public policy reasons for banning such adverts, or at least strongly regulating them. They generate a kind of false demand for medicine and treatments that should only be in "demand" to the extent that people really need them.
Mr Piccolo: never, it's illegal.
ReplyDeleteDavid: I bow to nobody in my scepticism about Lansley's proposals, but your characterisation of them is flat wrong. You will not be allowed to have any treatment without the approval of your GP. This approval is both agreement that the treatment is clinically appropriate, and agreement that the GP consortium (PCT replacement) is prepared to fund it.