BMJ  2006;332:973 (22 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7547.973

Letter

Call for shake up in NHS funding

A reply to 900 doctors

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

EDITOR—Why is anyone still giving space to proposals for insurance-based care? The Treasury has rejected it under every government, so has the Wanless report, so does the BMA, simply because it is the most costly and least efficient way to deliver. If everyone is included at all levels of risk, and we all agree to help our fellow citizens when they need it, why waste from a quarter to a half of the cost on administration and (if private sector insurance is involved) profit for shareholders?


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This country was on its knees in 1948, but still we voted to be members one of another, and our brothers' and sisters' keepers. Who dares to say now that we can no longer afford this? That English NHS hospitals can now keep afloat only by opening private wards is no fault of the voters, who have never voted for . . . [Full text of this article]

Julian Tudor Hart, research fellow

Swansea University Clinical School, Swansea SA2 8PP julian@tudorhart.freeserve.co.uk


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