UK govt looking at restricting NHS to core services

According to the "small print" of the public services policy review unveiled by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown, ministers are examining the possibility of defining the services that the National Health Service is obliged to provide free to everyone, reports the Financial Times. The newspaper quotes Anna Dixon, deputy director of policy at the think-tank the King's Fund, as suggesting that this would raise issues over whether things such as fertility treatment, and drugs for lifestyle conditions like obesity and impotence, should be included for NHS coverge.