Possibly some consultants are recommending supplements to earn themselves a little bit extra? They will presumably be paid a fixed daily rate by their hospital or the insurer for their work. I would not imagine a consultant can pass on the discount to his/her patients as only a very tiny proportion of them will be visiting him/her on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The glossary of Standard Life’s policy defines a homeopath which rather makes me think they are not concerned about the evidence base of treatment being offered.

seriously though, i’ve been thinking, and i can’t even think of a consultant i’ve worked for who does private work. i have literally nobody to ask about this, except relative strangers who will regard me with total suspicion (and that’ll be fun). this will all change when the NHS is dismantled over the next ten years of course.

if there are any doctors who do private work reading this can you ping me an email? ben@badscience.net, off the record etc. i’d really like to know what the deal is with docs getting kickbacks from labs and pill companies.

To look at Montmorency you would imagine that he was an angel sent upon the earth, for some reason withheld from mankind, in the shape of a small fox-terrier. There is a sort of Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-something-to-make-it-better-and-nobler expression about Montmorency that has been known to bring the tears into the eyes of pious old ladies and gentlemen.

When first he came to live at my expense, I never thought I should be able to get him to stop long. I used to sit down and look at him, as he sat on the rug and looked up at me, and think: “Oh, that dog will never live. He will be snatched up to the bright skies in a chariot, that is what will happen to him.”

But, when I had paid for about a dozen chickens that he had killed; and had dragged him, growling and kicking, by the scruff of his neck, out of a hundred and fourteen street fights…then I began to think that maybe they’d let him remain on earth for a bit longer, after all.

To be fair – I’ve no idea what the usual emoluments would be, given that these blood tests aren’t available in bricks and mortar stores near you, so they have to recruit an independent, commission-dependent, sales team.

being an nhs-only boy i don’t know enough about private medicine to know if this would happen with medical doctors. anyone? or i can ask around. although thinking about it – and this is probably only age – i don’t think i have a single friend who does any private work. i really am quite evidently a total loser.