Chris Salter wrote:
> Hello GP-UK-at-JISCMAIL.AC.UK,
>
> FYI: BBC News | Call for £20 charge to see doctor.
> Page last updated at 23:00 GMT, Saturday, 18 July 2009 00:00 UK.
>
> Opening paragraphs:
>
> Patients should be charged £20 to see a GP in a bid to limit demands
> placed on the health service, a centre-right think-tank says.
>
> The Social Market Foundation said forcing people to pay a fee for an
> appointment could help the NHS cope in the tight financial times
> ahead.
>
> The group said it would not breach the values of the NHS as charges
> already applied to dentistry and prescriptions
Dentistry is another matter, as indeed are chiropody and spectacles.
And none of them are medical treatment delivered by or under the aegis
of registered medical practitioners.
Prescriptions ...
In England. Not Wales, not Scotland.
BMA policy is that England should follow suit.
> The think-tank said the NHS was facing a tough couple of years.
Suggesting abandoning some of the more frivolous introductions of recent
years, such as services greatly more expensive and notably less good
than GPs that distract citizens from GPs would be a more ogent recipe
for success.
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A
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