What Thatcher Did to British Health Care

Two-year-old Rhys Daniels suffers from a rare genetic disorder that leads to blindness and dementia. He hit the headlines when he was denied life-saving treatment earlier this year because of the closure of a bone-marrow transplant unit at a London hospital. The boy’s father challenged the decision in the High Court but failed. The British public has become accustomed to the idea that its National Health Service (NHS) is “in crisis.” Most weeks there are stories in the media about people dying because their operations have been delayed; or doctors having to make “tough choices” about allocating resources; or vast sums of money disappearing into black holes created by inept managers; or ambulances failing to ...