Monday, March 21, 2005

Carte Vitale

I knew I'd be ill! Off to the doctor this morning to use my carte vitale. As ever, there is a tendency for doctors to err on the side of caution and dish out lots of medicine.

Because you pay before you leave the surgery, you feel better if you walk out with a prescription. At least you feel that you are getting some value for your money. However, being sensible for a minute, it's not efficient, because over prescribing puts a financial strain on the system.

Things need to change but as ever with these things, if you were designing a good health service, "you wouldn't want to start from here"!

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