At your service

To paraphrase Lewis Carroll's Alice: "'You are old, Father William', the young man said. 'And just how are we going to pay for your healthcare?'" It is a question that is concentrating minds across the western world, where an increasingly elderly society is being supported by a reducing working population. In the UK, rising medical and pension costs are combining with an ageing demographic to place NHS geriatric care under huge pressure within a system already under stress. UK taxes, though levied at a rate higher than most other countries, are unable to keep pace with the growing needs f...