Setting the record straight about the NHS

doi:10.1136/bmj.b3768

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ comment articles:

From

Limit by

Our online table of contents is updated at least twice each day. Read all articles published in the last 7 days.
Keep up to date with cardiology: Access the latest cardiovascular medicine resources from across BMJ Group.
The BMJ iPad app brings you the best of print and online, including live links to the latest news, blogs, video, and podcasts. Get the BMJ iPad app.
OPEN ACCESS: All research articles are freely available online, with no word limit. Find out more about the BMJ's open access policy. Submit your paper.
Countdown to London 2012: BMJ Group's Olympics portal highlights latest Olympics and sports medicine-themed research, comment and learning

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

Jacky Davis, co-chair, NHS Consultants’ Association,
Barbara Rafaeli, film and documentary maker

drjcdavis{at}hotmail.com

More than 100 NHS professionals and patients have added their names to an open letter to Senator John Kerry, who has called for the “lies” that have recently been circulating in the United States about the UK healthcare system to be refuted

Dear Senator Kerry

Your reported call for “lies” about healthcare reform to be refuted is essential and requires an urgent response. To that end, may we—British health professionals and patients—respectfully expose those lies about our NHS, a service that our experience shows to work successfully for the benefit of all in this country.

Patient choice

There is no “death panel” in the NHS in the United Kingdom or anywhere else in the UK healthcare sector.

Termination of a pregnancy is a personal decision if approved by two doctors. No board or organisation of any kind makes any decision about termination for fetal abnormality. Such decisions are personally made by those seeking such procedures after counselling by medical and other health professionals.

Elderly people can get counselling and advice to help them determine their requirements for their future care but only if they wish it. It is a service that provides information about issues such as living wills. This is similar to section 1233 of the proposed healthcare bill in the United States, which provides …