Popular Medicine

Plans are a-limp for health industry consumers to post their opinions of GPs on an NHS website. Ben Bradshaw, who has apparently attained ministerial status by virtue of an alliterative name, says he "wants the site to do for healthcare what Amazon has done for the book trade and Trip Adviser for the travel industry"; he compares the process of seeking treatment for illness to that of going on holiday, and the expression of public support for a non-privatised institution to "the results of an east European election under the Soviet regime". People will be allowed to comment anonymously, but the comments will be moderated to prevent specific individuals being identified, and the "forceful expression of positive or negative views" will be permitted. It is not clear what age certificate the more forceful expressions of public opinion will carry.

The chair of the BMA's committee on general practitioners thinks that the whole idea "has everything to do with consumerism and it has not been thought through well" and "has a great potential to be misleading"; but New New Labour are going ahead with it anyway. Fancy that. Still, there is some hope. "Officials have been told to have the appropriate software ready next year", and we all know what can happen when New New Labour officials get mixed up, if that is the term I want, with anything a bit computery.