Editorial.
People understand hospitals. If a hospital needs an item of technological wizardry, local people will go to extraordinary lengths to raise funds. If an old person at home needs regular qualified nursing care, will anyone sit in a bath of cold custard for a day to raise cash to provide this essential resource? At a more sophisticated level, there are endless examples of shroud-waving hospital consultants whose decision to go public to draw attention to a lack of resources has been followed by public sympathy and action to remedy the situation.