I left the meeting early for the clinic, and did not hear what was discussed. That evening, during the grand round, I met WY and a few others who were in the meeting. Naturally I asked what was being discussed.
"Just the usual stuff," my friends said.
"You know, I note that quite a few items are removed from the hospital formulary recently. Of course most of them are taken away because the manufacturer is not making it any more. But, it does raise the suspicion that some of them vanish because of financial reasons." I said.
(Of course that's not true. For most of the expensive stuff, our system only makes it exceedingly complicated to get the approval of prescription. You can always give it if the patient really really really needs it - so was it said.)
"But, this afternoon, I suddenly realized we have to remove two items from our formulary and we could save a lot of money," I continued, "And they are not expensive new drugs so their omission would not attract attention of the media."
"Eh...?" WY looked puzzled.
"We should ban all prescription of frusemide and salbutamol. I'm sure the hospital expenditure would drop by half !" I put up a wicked smile.
PS. For those who are interested in economy, my suggestion is a variant of the Water and Diamond Paradox.
Go read Adam Smith.
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