I could hardly believe your comment that you 'regard Britain’s universal free medical care with a kind of inspired awe' (WDDTY vol 13 no 3). There is nothing free about the NHS. We all pay for it through the nose,
A few weeks ago when my five-year-old daughter kamikazied into our coffeetable and gashed her forehead, I confidently whisked her off to an excellent little local minor-injuries unit I knew of in a nearby hospital.
Re the writer (WDDTY, vol 12 no 6, p 8) who expressed surprise at the cost of a private operation for skin cancer, it is worth reminding people that the NHS is also actually hugely expensive.
THAT'S NICE: Well it is for the pharmaceutical companies, at any rate