America's failure to provide

doi:10.1136/bmj.b3634

Published 7 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3634
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3634

Letters

The American crisis

America’s failure to provide

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

My father was a young general practitioner in Portsmouth atthe inception of the NHS in 1948 and proud of being able tolook after his poor patients living in the slums.¹

I provide federally funded medical care to a few of the 46 millionuninsured Americans: the working poor, homeless mentally ill,recent immigrants and migrant workers, and senior citizens withinadequate cover for their needs. I have a very hard time obtainingthe services they need outside my own primary care efforts.They must scrabble for cash (which they seldom get) to pay formedicine, consultant evaluations, optometry, and dental services;there is no domiciliary care; and hospitals kick them out inthe middle of the night if they are able to walk.

I am currently in England looking after my dying mother at home.Nurses come in four times a day, the general practitioner visitsthree times . . . [Full text of this article]

Margaret E Allen, physician assistant and lead clinician¹

¹ Ravenswood Family Health Center, East Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA

margaret.e.allen@gmail.com

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