An open letter to the Prime Minister

doi:10.1136/bmj.39484.540127.59

BMJ 2008;336:360 (16 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39484.540127.59

Observations

Life and Death

An open letter to the Prime Minister

Iona Heath, general practitioner, London

iona.heath@dsl.pipex.com

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

Dear Mr Brown

On 8 January this year, David Beckham emerged from a meetingwith you at 10 Downing Street saying: "He’s a very goodman, you know, he’s a man that’s looking after ourcountry and he’s doing a very good job." I want to believethis ringing endorsement not only because, despite Mr Capello,Beckham still has the most beautiful right foot in footballbut also for the sake of the National Health Service. Sadly,the day before your meeting with David Beckham you gave a speechthat makes it very difficult for me to sustain any such belief.

Your speech had two ostensibly worthy themes: access and prevention.Elaborating on both, you made some astonishingly simplisticstatements, which obliged me both to question the quality ofyour advisers and to ponder the point at which a distorted claimbecomes a lie.

On the subject of access, you . . . [Full text of this article]

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Re: Out of hours Access - other professional groups: Lesley E Bacon
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Disguising the truth: Roger M Goss
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Re: Out of hours Access: M Valerie Hesketh
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The fallacy of consumer choice: Oliver C Boney
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