To add to Paul's comments, references to Continental health systems in Britain often aim not at convincing us of the superiority of the NHS, but at showing how inadequate it is compared to health systems in Europe. In fact, such comparisons are often misleading, because European systems do not necessarily achieve better health outcomes for the extra money they spend. That's not, of course, to argue that the NHS doesn't need more resources! But its an interesting illustration of the differences between the two countries that Jean-Paul entirely missed the humour of the extract when read in the British context.
Chris.
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Spicker [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sun 6/8/2003 11:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: Catastrophe in French health care
Jean-Paul takes me to task for daring to post material from a French
newspaper about French social policy, including author, date and page
reference. "Serious consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of
systems requires a rather difficult and balanced analysis." If we applied
that stricture generally we would never be able to post anything short of a
fully argued academic paper.
Jean-Paul, you also comment that "Quoting dramatic headlines from the French
press does not necessarily help British experts understand what exactly is
happening over here". The specific example I quoted (not being able to keep
a child with a sore finger overnight) will certainly be read in a very
different way from the way it would be read in France, but it's not to the
detriment of the French health service. The article talks about making
economies under pressure as if it was shocking and unfamiliar. We were
forced to give up equivalent responses in Britain, where such facilities
ever existed, over thirty years ago. On a personal note, one of my earliest
failures in housing aid was in trying to persuade a hospital consultant to
keep a homeless woman who'd been assaulted by her partner overnight. No
chance: there was far too much pressure on beds. That was, if I remember
rightly, in November 1973.
Paul Spicker
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