21st April 2013


If you feel reasonably well, is it better to have regular health check-ups or (as my family used to say) keep away from doctors and hospitals? American doctors want their patients to live (so that they can keep taking their money) whereas English hospitals want you actually to die to free up the beds!
Here in France, people complain that doctors often don't even look at their patients, preferring to stare at their computer screens. To make matters worse, the tests patients are being sent for are extremely costly to France's health service.  In French daily Le Parisien I read that blood and urine tests cost a staggering €2.5 billion in 2011, MRIs cost €917 million and screening for colon cancer cost €97 million in France. Dr. Jean Dubousset, a Paris-based surgeon, even advocates that there's too much screening going on which 'can lead to unnecessary anxiety among patients'. 'Fitting a pacemaker for someone suffering from Alzheimer's disease is both a moral and financial aberration,' said another.  Why?  Even if the patient isn't aware of it, he still needs it!
Him indoors says, wherever you live, it's all about cost, not the patient.  When the doctor says 'this is going to  hurt', it's not the needle it's his invoice!



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