title: A brighter future for older people.
abstract: There was a cartoon in a recent issue of Private Eye in which a doctor was telling an older woman: 'Under the new charter, elderly patients will not be treated differently by the NHS - they'll be treated just as badly as everyone else.' If you overlooked the fact that the woman's slightly dotty hat and nervous clutching of her handbag were the cartoonist's clumsy way of indicating her advancing years, there was a certain ironic wit in the caricature.