Bill Harvey: I’m a believer

Like many others across the country, I received a letter this week letting me know that a long-awaited hospital appointment was cancelled. That was all it said.

In the final three months of last year, there was a 39% rise in people self-funding treatments compared with the same period before the pandemic. Many of these new customers are uninsured and are taking out loans, using credit cards or resorting to crowdfunding to pull together the money. Thank goodness none of the squabbling Tory hopefuls are considering cuts to the taxes or national insurance that fund the health service.

On a lighter note, I heartily recommend a new broadcast on BBC iPlayer called The Expectation Effect in which science writer David Robson discusses the impact of state of mind upon physical health. The placebo and nocebo effect should be of great interest to ECPs. As I have said many times before, perception is not just what the eye sees and, contrary to the view that vision is merely about refractive error correction (take note, GOC and autorefractor manufacturers), helping our patients involves listening and, most importantly, managing expectations.