Lenore Taylor; 15/11/08
The television images were graphic. Thousands of people were waiting patiently in a dusty field to see doctors and dentists and specialists working in the open air or under makeshift tarps. Some of the patients had advanced cancer, some untreated diabetes. Most were seriously unwell. Some had arrived the previous evening, waiting all night just to make sure they were seen. A long line waited to have their rotten teeth pulled. A close-up shot showed the dentist tossing an extracted tooth into a plastic bucket. It was almost full of teeth. The images looked like foreign aid being delivered to a refugee camp somewhere in Africa. But they were taken in the US state of Virginia, where British adventurer turned philanthropist Stan Brock offers free health treatments once a year to some of the 47million Americans who do not have health insurance and can’t afford care. They were a reminder of why we should cling to our public health system for all we are worth. But a report from the Australian Medical Association this week showed once again that our public hospitals are decaying from the inside like a rotting tooth.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24652940-7583,00.html
