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Medical business profit from young patients

If you're in business, the ideal patient is not someone with a rare and interesting condition, it's the young male professionals Is the ideal patient someone with a rare and interesting condition? Not if you're in business. Then it's the young male professionals who are of “particular interest”, says a report by Goodstuff, a market research firm. The document was commissioned by Virgin Healthcare, reports Pulse (June 25). “From a business point of view, this audience [is] the most lucrative to recruit,” says the report. “They help [to] fulfil a quota without putting a great strain on resources.” Virgin Healthcare says in a statement that “the advice has not been used or considered by any of the current management team”. Mark Adams, CEO of Virgin Healthcare, tells Pulse: “The Goodstuff report was commissioned in 2006, and I can hand on heart say [that] I haven't even seen it.” Other documents from February 2008 show the breakdown of patients at the first practice Virgin Healthcare plans to open in January - Taw Hill Medical Practice in Swindon. The practice has a “growing population of affluent professionals with young families” and about 75 per cent of the list is under 40, with just 4 per cent aged 60 and over. In another twist, the Institute for Public Policy Research asks whether patients paying for private healthcare could help to ease the NHS's financial problems. No, is the answer, reports Health Service Journal (June 26). Lisa Harker, director of the think-tank, says: “Private healthcare is not the solution to the long-term funding of the NHS. The public's health needs can only be met efficiently by governments raising increased resources for healthcare collectively.” Phone fun beats real life Breaking into adulthood is tough for teens today. Dilemmas abound. Dole or degree? Gym or gin? Now a mobile phone game to help young people to learn how to live alone will help yoof in Kirklees to negotiate grown-up life, says Children & Young People Now (June 25). InLiving, devised by Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing (KNH), uses an animated character, created by the player, in a virtual world of independent living situations. These include the hairdressers', the job centre and the bar as well as shops, college and in their own flat. The game poses choices that young people might face. Should we splash out on shopping or spend the cash on bills? Jeremy Kyle at home on benefits or job and no Jeremy? (This should be easy.) Players will also be able to look after their own health with rewards for clever choices and dire consequences for taking a punt on a burger. The game will be free to all young people on the Kirklees' housing list. KNH partners, from Connexions to youth offending teams, will be distributing the game. One dilemma that may have escaped them, however: real-life interaction or phone game addiction? http://www.timesonline.co.uk

 

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