Only general practice can save the NHS

While today's BMJ carries an analysis of problems within the NHS, Dr. Heath's recommendations apply equally well to the US Health System, whatever permutations are developed over the next two years. The current enthusiasm for market forces seems to be making changes politically unacceptable and so nothing is being done about the expansionist health technology industry, which is driving demand for health care through the deliberate inflation of fear. The definitions of disease are being extended to include more people as patients and preventive medicine pursues an ever greater number of risk factors, each of which triggers a search for more technological interventions.