It has been the aspiration of civil engineering to rationalise essential maintenance wherever possible to avoid the embarrassment caused when different utilities dig up the streets without communicating with each.
The water board repairs a leak. Six months later the gas board replace pipes. Three months after that, the electricity company lays cables. Effectively, each digs up the road and fills it in again. Traffic is permanently disrupted and the public lose faith in the body politic.
The ideal, therefore, is forward planning. Intentions are recorded, plans are laid, and when the opportunity arises, everybody chips in. Costs are reduced, disruption is cut to a minimum, and frustration is replaced with a sense of achievement.
Why can't the national health work like that?
OK, this is the proposal:
You're going in for an operation, you're receiving a general anaesthetic; so why not use that state of unconciousness to conduct anything else that is unpleasant in the woken state? They could charge for other stuff to cover the cost of the original treatment!
For example: a colonoscopy, let's see how the fundament is doing! Why not have an appendicectomy, you don't need it? Liposuction! Rhinoplasty! Dental work: have that route canal done, or have your teeth bleached. And whilst you're at it, why not have a leg wax? Or get a tattoo?
Think about it: you go in for a bypass as Stan Ogden, and you come out like Micky Rourke!
OK, bad anology, and one that needs some work; but the principle remains, and I think this one's a winner. But will the Department for Health & Social Security have the sense to put it through?
What do you think?
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