PUBS and doctors' surgeries have much in common. Both dispense restoratives after listening to people's problems. Patrons of each expect to leave feeling better than when they arrived.

Perhaps this is why a York pub was asked to advertise on the appointment card of a GPs' surgery. Landlady Geraldine Walton was surprised by the approach. Pub-going is not generally considered the healthiest of leisure pursuits. Even a rigorous game of dominoes is not usually enough to offset a gallon of beer and 20 cigarettes.

She saw the funny side, but turned down the offer. That was a relief for practice manager Di Rushton, who is fuming that the advertising agency approached a pub in the first place. She had visions of an endorsement saying "Minster Health: as recommended by the Waggon and Horses".

Ad agency Medicard is unrepentant, however. Pubs, a spokeswoman implied, are healthy places because people eat there. True: the Waggon's clientele regularly dine on health foods like smoky bacon crisps and pickled eggs.

We look forward to the agency's next promotion. Perhaps they will persuade the Mob to advertise in North Yorkshire police's in-house magazine, or a distillery to support liver research.

But there is a serious point to this story. That a doctors' surgery relies on this sort of advertising to fund something as basic as appointment cards is extraordinary, yet symbolic of the chaotic state of NHS funding.

The Government is determined to increase the private financing of our public services. As the Minster Health tale demonstrates, business sponsorship is already involved from the grassroots up. If GP practices are dependent on such deals, it will be the ones in the poorest areas, where advertising revenue is hardest to find, who will lose out again.

Meanwhile, run-down York residents in need of a pick-me-up know what to do: make an appointment at the Waggon and Horses.

Updated: 10:30 Wednesday, August 29, 2001