Law of supply and demand applies in NHS

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7325.1370

BMJ 2001;323:1370 ( 8 December )

Letters

Law of supply and demand applies in NHS

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ So recognisable was Jeffrey's description of his wife's doctor's surgery that I read his end piece with discomfort,as I had a strong suspicion that his wife was a patient of mine.¹

I was pleased to discover that it was not our service being described, but I was also interested because I had made the samecomparisons between my surgery and the local veterinary surgerywhen my own cat had been unwell. I had found consolation in theargument that, as a public service, the NHS does not have thesame laws of supply and demand that the private sector vets have.If a vet's workload rises, I thought, then so does their income.With that they can employ more vets without the approval of theveterinary equivalent of the Medical Practices Committee, andthus maintain a similar level of service no matter what thedemand.

My consolation . . . [Full text of this article]