BMJ  2005;331 (22 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7522.0-f

Editor's choice

Better decisions

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

The world seems to have shrunk this year. The South Asian earthquake and the possibility of a bird flu pandemic—coming hard on the heels of the Asian tsunami, the sub-Saharan famine, and hurricane Katrina—continue to bump national politics and celebrity gossip off our front pages and screens. Not so long ago, natural disasters and diseases affecting the world's poorest and most disadvantaged people would grab headlines for only a few days. Is the richer world genuinely more interested now? It should be, and not only for humanitarian reasons: these events and the responses to them can inform and improve policy decisions in our own countries (p 916, p 921, and p926).

National politics never goes away completely, though, and the debate on the future of the NHS rages on. Ian Kunkler, an oncologist from Scotland, calls for an independent regulator to see that commercial interests and . . . [Full text of this article]

Trish Groves, senior assistant editor

(tgroves@bmj.com)


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