NHS query

[Amy Z]

Glenda wrote:

> I dont think that people who happily keep a child locked in a 
cupboard for weeks on end would be too worried about Social Services 
opinion of his eyeglasses. 

LOL!  I know, it isn't funny, but your phrasing is.
 
> Perhaps he got them through a government health program through 
school?

That's what I mean.  In the US, I don't think this would happen.  They 
*might* do a govt-paid eye test at school (though we only had simpler 
things like colorblindness and hearing-loss tests at mine, and if you 
had any problems you got referred to a fee-for-service doctor), but 
even if they did, the government wouldn't just give him new glasses.  
They'd make the Dursleys pay, or else require verification that the 
Dursleys are eligible for welfare.

I know this is way more detail than anyone else cares about, but I've 
run into the NHS idea before and I just want to know if that's really 
the way it would work.

Amy