Tuesday, July 19, 2005

NHS Supermarkets?

This morning, a colleague was complaining about the inconvenience of an NHS hospital appointment for her child. After months of waiting for an appointment, she has two options, attend immediately (disrupting her working day) or continue to wait until early September.

I can only smile at the irony of a Labour supporter in favour of the NHS who then complains at the lack of 'customer' focus or flexibility. Such contempt for the 'customer' would not be tolerated in any other organisation.

People often consider that such an essential service should always be operated in the public sector. Why? Could Government ever run a supermaket as efficiently or customer centred as Tesco or Wal-mart?

Are expectations of the NHS really so low that anything is better than nothing?

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