Douglas et al.
This discussion is excellent. I want to tell a story of US Health Care in the 1970's which is relevant. I was working in Preventive Medicine at Harvard and when I got back to the UK in the mid 70's I got a job at Oxford where ultimately part of what I did was to teach Health Care Organisation in the public health bit of the clinical curriculum. I received one day a copy of a letter from a US colleague from the AMA to him - which for some reason ( I can't now remember exactly why ) identified the (supposed) horrors of the NHS as argument for resisting change in the US.
I wrote to the AMA and asked if I could use the material on my course - since it seemed to characterise so well the amazing misconceptions about 'socialised medicine', none of which were factually correct. Interestingly I received a reply very quickly saying a) ' no please don't' and b) they had decided to change their propaganda to a more evidence based approach.
I don't know whether they did - but if so it hasn't had any permanent effect ! At the very least what is said about UK (and Canadian) health care ought surely to be accurate ??
I strongly commend the efforts of you and Ash in pursuing this objective.
Klim
Klim McPherson
Fellow of New College
Chair of the National Heart Forum
Visiting Professor of Public Health Epidemiology
Nuffield Dept of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Oxford University
Womens Centre, Level3
John Radcliffe Hospital
Headington
Oxford OX3 9DU
Tel: 01865 740885
Home: 01865 558743
Mobile: 07711335993
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