The Brits Got It Better, Right?
Here is an eye-opening story from across the pond. A report recently released exposed some of the horrors occurring at an English hospital. Stories from patients being left moaning in their own waste to family members forced to bring in food are among just some of the dreadful treatments doled out in that facility. The report also shows “patients were ignored as they pleaded for clean sheets and even water, and it says certainly thousands died from the neglect”. British Prime Minister David Cameron doesn’t believe the problems are restricted to a single facility. Wait a minute. I thought their National Health System was perfect?
- “Calls for help to use the bathroom were ignored and patients were left lying in soiled sheeting and sitting on commodes for hours, often feeling ashamed and afraid,” reads the report, written by lawyer Robert Francis.
- “Patients were left unwashed, at times for up to a month. Food and drinks were left out of the reach of patients and many were forced to rely on family members for help with feeding,” added Francis, who was appointed to investigate the hospital in 2009 after it showed a higher-than-usual rate of deaths
“The inquiry found that a chronic shortage of staff, particularly nursing staff, was largely responsible for the substandard care. Staff who spoke out felt ignored and there is strong evidence that many were deterred from doing so through fear and bullying.”
Cameron said he would get help from an American – Dr. Donald Berwick, who was appointed President Barack Obama’s administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but who finally stepped down after Republicans in Congress refused to confirm his appointment. Many Republicans were infuriated by Berwick’s praise of Britain’s NHS.
OMG. They are going to get the guy who is the poster boy for “industrialized medicine” and bogus quality measures. Maybe he can set up more beeps and whistles to watch these patients and get rid of the rest those expensive and pesky nurses?
The critics to the European National Health Systems is nothing new but so far I do not believe that the data shows them having a worse morbidity and mortality data than the USA. Some of those countries actually enjoy a higher standard of living, spending less than half of percentage of their GDP on health care.
Unfortunately, the passage of Obamacare waisted a great opportunity to really reform Health Care in the United States to a more effective system, free of “defensive medicine”, where people do not have to go bankrupt due to health reasons and waist/abuse (by both the public and providers), hopefully gets eliminated.
Why dont we see a few articles on the poor performance of the french, belgian or italian health care systems? Oh, maybe because those sytems ( 2 tiered) work well?
I hate to say this, but there is no news here.
The same stuff happened a few years ago when my wife was a patient at a hospital **where I worked** when the nurses **knew I was a doctor there**.
I can only imagine what they do to patients who aren’t “connected.”
That is hilarious!! So P.M. Cameron wants advice from the guy who praised the very mess for which he needs help??
Two hints for all you A.M. readers:
1. Enjoy this great clip from the show “Yes Minister”, in which a British politician is shown an award-winning hospital…which has NO patients: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-5zEb1oS9A
That should make it all clear.
2. Quit bitching about crappy care – remember, the worse it gets, the more “free” it will be.
Having just come back from an extended stay in the UK with a cancer patient, I would like to make the following observation.
You can’t pick up a newspaper in the UK without reading a new story day after day about the failing of the NHS. One of which was about how foreign imported doctors don’t do as good a job as native UK trained docs. Or the wait times or the understaffing at the hospitals. But Brits with a wallet get great care by buying private insurance and going to private hospital when they get sick. So not much complaint from the well off, they stay away from the NHS hospitals. So the system works like this. Go to the NHS doctor for your colds, but when the going gets rough and the NHS can’t do your cancer surgery, flip over to the private hospitals for your care rather than wait an extra month. But by god they track you down for your mammagram and a stool check even if you have metastatic cancer. Sound familiar, NO THINK medicine is coming to the US. But I am in favor of sending one of Obama’s lapdogs over to the UK, maybe we could send them all!!!!!!!!!!!