Subscribe He is the one who has to eyeball his patients in his clinic so he can take the rap and
By Admin
He is the one who has to eyeball his patients in his clinic, so he can take the rap and carry the can. "Sorry, Mrs Smith, you just aren't in quite as much pain as Mr Brown next door." That sounds quite reasonable. After all, who better than he to judge between the needs of his own patients?Except that as far as the individual patient is concerned, this random way of rationing means there is no longer a national health service at all. Instead, you have to choose where to live according to the illness you suffer: IVF, grommets, and the drug Epo for dialysis patients are all key treatments only available according to local whim. Maybe towns should have big signs up: Welcome to Liverpool, Land of the Lung Transplant! Or Kidderminister for Kidneys! Middlesbrough for Metabolics!Doubts have been raised about how effective Betaferon is - not least by the Consumers' Association's Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin At its best, it is so far only a palliative drug But that is beside the point. MS patients have had their expectations raised, only to be told they cannot have it Perhaps the drug should not have been licensed.
Or the NHS should have been bold enough to announce that no one would get it.Who should do the rationing? The politicians - it is their job to set the policy and take the flak. Instead, at the very word "rationing" health ministers turn tail and hide under their desks. People increasingly understand that the NHS is cash-limited and cash-strapped, but they cannot understand or accept gross and arbitrary geographical inequalities in the treatment they get.. It is open season on Muslims once more.
Baroness Thatcher was yesterday warning in an apocalyptic speech about the dangers of "radical Islam". And Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, announced that the Government may tighten up laws to enable a clampdown on British Muslims alleged to be supporting the Palestinian extremists of Hamas. As soon as a conflict arises involving Muslims anywhere in the world, however remote, British Muslims are named as the financiers, if not the master plotters. But the suggestion that the Muslims of Britain could supply funds for military activities in the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans and South Asia is laughable. We are one of the poorest communities here and almost all our mosques, schools and welfare organisations are financed by our wealthy coreligionists in the oil-producing countries. The little spare cash that the British Muslims donate for outsiders is always marked for social and medical relief. Mr Howard acknowledged as much yesterday when he admitted that there was no evidence of money going from this country to Hamas.The campaign to treat Muslim charities as suspicious will almost certainly strain the relationship between Muslims and Jews in this country and it will also heighten Muslim feelings of alienation.I can well understand the anxieties of some Jewish leaders here about funds being supplied to sponsor the activities of the military wing of Hamas.