Limited resources?

摘要

The editorial by Ryan and Watson1 begins, ‘In publicly provided healthcare systems, when limited resources are coupled with unlimited demand, decisions have to be made about the efficient allocation of scarce resources.’ If a supermarket manager wrote an editorial claiming that demand for food is infinite and it is therefore impossible to keep his shelves stocked, we would wonder how he kept his job. So why do we take seriously the claim that medical services, which, unlike food, most people tend to avoid as much as possible, are subject to ‘unlimited demand’?