04.01.11
Your choice
The BMA has pulled no punches in its latest criticism of NHS reform, seriously ramping up its rhetoric.
Only rich patients will get “real choice”, according to Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA’s GP committee, while old, sick and poor people will get stuck with GPs close to home, even if they do not offer certain drugs or treatments or standards of care.
Whatever the truth of the claim, it is no doubt powerful. Ministers will have to work hard to counter it if it is not to become embedded. The central argument that choice in our public services drives up standards is embedded among the mainstream political parties – but the public has never seemed as convinced.
The scare term ‘postcode lottery’ shows us that. The idea that choice drives up standards relies inherently on a form of postcode lottery, but the idea of different standards of care in different parts of the country makes many people react with horror.
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