Forty per cent of these are boys up from 32 per cent four years ago
Posted in General on 05. Sep, 2010
Forty per cent of these are boys, up from 32 per cent four years ago. For this service to music we, of course, salute the new cream of British musicianship. Anything that can distract young people from their X-Boxes and Game Cubes is to be welcomed. But there’s still a long way to go if we are to tap the musical potential of our young people. Choosing medical care is never going to be like shopping on the high street. Even the most health literate among us will ultimately be dependent on informed advice from our doctors. But this reform still represents a significant power shift away from individual hospitals and into the hands of patients..
Those Arctic Monkeys have a lot to answer for. So do the Kaiser Chiefs, the Libertines, Razorlight, Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, and many more guitar-strumming, drum-thrashing bands. Not only have they made British rock respectable again, but they have persuaded young boys of the merits of playing musical instruments. Establishing patient choice in the NHS does not, of course, create a conventional “market” in health care.
But the path is now clear for the creation of a more responsive and consumer-friendly health service. The days when patients would automatically be dispatched to a hospital of their doctor’s choosing are now over. This New Year marks a new era for the provision of health care. The long-awaited National Health Service Patient Choice programme became active yesterday.