The NHS’s Latest Hits
Mike, what news is there from the wonderful UK healthcare system? Glad you asked:
The full extent of the horrific conditions at an NHS hospital where hundreds may have died because of ‘appalling’ care was laid bare yesterday.
Dehydrated patients were forced to drink out of flower vases, while others were left in soiled linen on filthy wards.
Relatives of patients who died at Staffordshire General Hospital told how they were so worried by the standard of care they slept in chairs on the wards.
The ‘shocking’ catalogue of failures was released yesterday after an independent investigation by the Healthcare Commission.
It found Government waiting time targets and a bid to win foundation status were pursued at the expense of patient safety over a three-year period at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust.
The commission’s report - revealed in yesterday’s Daily Mail - said at least 400 deaths could not be explained, although it is feared up to 1,200 patients may have died needlessly.
This is just stunning.
Among the findings of the report were:
Receptionists carrying out initial checks on patients;
Two clinical decision units - one unstaffed - used as ‘dumping grounds’ for A&E patients to avoid missing waiting targets;
Nurses who turned off heart monitors because they didn’t understand how to use them;
Delayed operations, with some patients having surgery cancelled four days in a row and left without food, drink or medication;
Vital equipment such as heart defibrilators was not working;
A savings target of £10million met at the expense of 150 posts, including nurses.
I will grant that this is not typical of the NHS system. But it is something that you will get when you essentially take the consumer completely out of the loop.
But let’s look at the good side—at least the kept costs down.
Comments
So why post it?
So it’s okay for Moore to show isolated horrible incidents in “Sicko” to “show” that our system of capitalized medicine is broken, but we can’t talk about far more widespread horrible incidents in socialized medicine systems to show how they might be broken as well? How does THAT logic make sense? Moore took tiny snippets of things and made them seem huge, and that’s okay. But MikeS talks about the findings of a national commission that investigated and found a depth of horrors going on in Britain’s health care, but because it doesn’t hold true EVERYWHERE in Britain, that’s not okay?
Your logic is faulty at best, and I think you know it.
Once you take corporations and profits out of the picture, it is all rainbows and butterflies. :)
So it’s okay for Moore to show isolated horrible incidents in “Sicko” to “show” that our system of capitalized medicine is broken, but we can’t talk about far more widespread horrible incidents in socialized medicine systems to show how they might be broken as well?
It depends if they are taken out of context really.
The issue you raise with the NHS is, again, misunderstood. The issues here have been the introduction of the ‘free market’ over the original concept of ‘care for all’. Cleaning used to be done in house but Margaret Thatcher (encouoraged by America) decided to put out to tender those ‘non-essential’ services. Cleaning went out to tender.
Now, what happens in this case?
Well, the idea is that you get a private company in to clean at or below the cost originally paid. Market forces will encourage competition and the consumer wins!
How can a private company charge the same or less than a publicly owned service AND make a profit? Cutbacks. Rooms are cleaned to TIME and not need, inferior cleaning products and untrained (often student) workers drafted in.
Consequence? Dirty wards and ignoring general hygiene that had kept the NHS so high up the world chart. Now we have cases such as the one highlighted.
So, what should we do? Privatise the lot and see greater profits derived from the sick and old? Nope, we bring the services back in under the charge of the hospitals; which is what is happening.
Equally, you still need to justify why America is 37th in the world (UK is 18th - http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html).
Also, as regards ranking of child mortality, the US is behind the UK by some margin (ranking 158 against the UK’s 161). Michael Moore may distort the truth (French system is NOT free) but do you do a service to anyone if you distort it to simply further your aims?
If you are for truth then do so, without worrying about embarassment to yourself.
GaryN:
I understand that you feel you are having a fresh debate here. In truth, for us here at MooreWatch, all the questions you are asking and all the hypothetical scenarios you are raising have already been talked about and answered to death. We’ve countered and proven false the UN ranking of US healthcare. We’ve broken apart the arguments about child mortality. We’ve smashed the notion that both solely private and solely socialized medicine are the best models. You can read ALL of this in our archives under the “Sicko” tag, and before accusing us of not defending our positions I suggest you go and do some serious back reading first.
Forgive me, but I just can’t stomach going through all this yet right after the death of one of my dearest friends and one of the founders of this site again when it’s already been done to death.
In short, please do your research about what we’ve already discussed on this site before telling me or anyone else about how we’re embarrassing ourselves.
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"I will grant that this is not typical of the NHS system.”
So why post it?