EREWHON HEALTHCARE – THE BEST IN THE WORLD
Erewhon has a population of 5 million people. It is a population with an age
distribution typical of most developed countries with about 15% of the
population over the age of 65, and the population is ageing. Most live in cities, with two big
cities each with a medical school, and city living is increasing and there are
some thriving towns and some depressed industrial areas and large sparsely
populated rural areas
The economy of Erewhon is improving slowly but
taking into account the impact that population ageing has on health and social
care; it is wise to work on the assumption that there will be no real increase
in resources available for health and social care. The population of Erewhon is covered by a payment system
that is based on combination of tax and insurance but the responsibility for
health services is discharged to
10 geographical areas each with a budget taking into account age and
deprivation. They have the
responsibility for resource allocation; the responsibility for health service
provision is based primarily on programmes and systems. Each of the
populations, served by the Health Boards called A-J, happen to have a hospital,
largely for historical reasons, with two of them being larger teaching
hospitals and there are ten Mental Health Services and about 50 general
practice teams in each.
