Britain's NHS
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The parents of a five-year-old who was denied lifesaving treatment on the National Health Service have been arrested for kidnap after desperately trying to get their son so the Czech Republic, where he could be treated privately. 
The horror stories just keep coming in: long lines outside emergency departments — just to get into the waiting room — and of hospitals locking their doors to keep new arrivals away... "There had been ambulances parked outside for five hours with their patients inside, who were being treated by paramedics," Cunningham said. "They couldn't even get in the A&E department."
The U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS), for decades the case-study in postwar universal healthcare for governments around the world, seems to be facing its biggest ever crisis of confidence. Almost every area of U.K. state-provided treatment from cancer to the emergency room and midwifery is complaining of overcrowding and underfunding.
Behind everyday tales of crisis in A&E departments, staff shortages and managerial bungling lie stories of patients, many of them elderly, left to drift like social flotsam. -Mary Riddell
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
A patient waited 62 hours for an ambulance, while four trusts took more than 24 hours to respond to 999 calls, new figures have shown. The longest delays in the UK were recorded by Welsh Ambulance Service, which kept four patients waiting for more than 50 hours.
A spokesman said the figures were "not typical" and "represent the extreme end of the waiting time spectrum". The Patients Association said they were "extremely concerning".
Between June 2017 and June 2018, ambulances from four services took 24 hours to reach patients, including some with breathing and mental health problems.
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
Every hospital in the country has been ordered to cancel all non-urgent surgery until at least February in an unprecedented step by NHS officials.
The instructions on Tuesday night - which will see result in around 50,000 operations being axed - followed claims by senior doctors that patients were being treated in “third world” conditions, as hospital chief executives warned of the worst winter crisis for three decades.
Hospitals are reporting growing chaos, with a spike in winter flu leaving frail patients facing 12-hour waits, and some units running out of corridor space.
Government, Fascism, Bigbrother, Socialism, Healthcare
Fat parents who smoke and live “couch potato lifestyles” by eating snacks have been told to get their act together or “face the music” by the head of the National Health Service... He said: “We’ll certainly step up and play our part - but the NHS can’t do it alone. Because the NHS isn’t just a care and repair service, it’s a social movement."
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
In a country that prides itself on free healthcare, DIY dentistry is an almost Victorian notion of hardship. But poverty and inequality – and the increasing stigma attached to both – are blocking access to healthcare for the poorest people in the UK, and grim tales of a black economy are on the rise. “DIY dentistry is fairly common round here,” said Emma Richardson at the Star Project in Paisley, Renfrewshire.
Annual budgets faced black holes since the launch of the NHS on July 5, 1948 as pre-launch budget estimates for 1946 to 1947 stood at £110 million, which proved to be heavily underrated. The actual cost in 1948/49 was £328 million, which grew to £430 million in five years. The government, shocked by the gross underestimation of the NHS expenditure, was quick to increase the hidden costs of so called “free medical treatment” in Britain.
Liberal, Government, Degeneracy, Socialism, Healthcare
Britain is to get its first NHS-funded national sperm bank to make it easier for lesbian couples and single women to have children. For as little as £300 – less than half the cost of the service at a private clinic – they will be able to search an online database and choose an anonymous donor on the basis of his ethnicity, height, profession and even hobbies. The bank, which is due to open in October, will then send out that donor’s sperm to a clinic of the client’s choice for use in trying for a baby.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare, Regulation
Three damning reports last night laid bare the crisis in NHS hospitals, maternity units and GP surgeries. One investigation revealed that a quarter of new mothers were abandoned by their midwives during labour, with some left to give birth on the floor or in corridors. The second found that mistakes deemed so serious they should never happen are being made in hospitals five times a week. And the third survey said thousands of patients have all but given up trying to secure appointments with their family doctor.
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Narrative, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
The 2004 figures show that NHS had the worst figures of all seven countries. Once the death rate was adjusted, England was 22 per cent higher than the average of all seven countries and it was 58 per cent higher than the best country. That meant NHS patients were almost 60 per cent more likely to die in hospital compared with patients in the best country.
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Degeneracy, Scandal, Brilliance, Narrative, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare, Regulation
Patients are 45% more likely to die in NHS hospitals than in US ones, according to figures revealing how badly England’s health service compares with those of other countries. A patient in England was five times as likely to die of pneumonia and twice as likely to die of septicaemia compared to similar patients in the US, the leading country in the study, the data suggested.
Numerous reports and inquiries have revealed serious failings in the National Health Service. From the Bristol heart babies to Mid Staffordshire, fundamental problems with care have been exposed. But what Channel 4 News can now reveal is previously unpublished data which shows just how badly our hospital mortality rates compare with other countries. And never more so than for the elderly.
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Narrative, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare, Murder
As many as 1,165 people starved to death in NHS hospitals over the past four years fuelling claims nurses are too busy to feed their patients. The Department of Health branded the figures 'unacceptable' and said the number of unannounced inspections by the care watchdog will increase. In 2011, 43 patients starved to death and 291 died in a state of severe malnutrition, while the number of patients discharged from hospital suffering from malnutrition doubled to 5,558. Dianne Jeffrey, chairwoman of Malnutrition Task Force, condemned the statistics. She told The Sunday Express: 'Too many are paying the price with their lives while being deprived of the basic right to good nutrition, hydration and support.'
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
Nearly 40 per cent of doctors would not recommend their own hospital to friends or family, startling new figures reveal. A further one in three do not believe NHS managers act on the concerns of patients.
Liberal, Degeneracy, Financial, Socialism, Healthcare, Murder
A British councilman has apologized for saying “disabled children cost the council too much money and should be put down,” the BBC reported. Collin Brewer, an independent member of Cornwall Council, said he was trying to “provoke a reaction” when he made the comments to a member of Disability Cornwall, an advocacy group for disabled people. The charity complained, and Brewer was ordered to make a formal apology.
Crime, Hate, Violence, Government, Incompetence, Character, Degeneracy, Scandal, Waste, Socialism, Healthcare
A midwife at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust dragged a partly-naked patient out of a bathroom and told him: “You are no longer a human being but an animal,” a misconduct hearing is to be told.
As for patients, even George Orwell could not have devised the Liverpool Care Pathway, revealed last week as a state death management package. It has nurses shouting at visitors not to give dying relatives a sip of water for fear it might wreck the hospital's deaths target. No one was doing anything "wrong", since everything was done by the book.
Liberal, Government, Bigbrother, Socialism, Healthcare
GPs are to be forced to hand over confidential records on all their patients’ drinking habits, waist sizes and illnesses. The files will be stored in a giant information bank that privacy campaigners say represents the ‘biggest data grab in NHS history’. They warned the move would end patient confidentiality and hand personal information to third parties.
Liberal, Incitement, Government, Character, Sex, Degeneracy, Education, Economy, Socialism, Healthcare, Corruption
The ‘Respect Yourself’ website and smartphone app, which is the first of its kind in the UK, has sparked outrage after advising children that they can disregard the legal age for sexual consent since ‘you are the only one who knows when you are ready’. The website, based on the Dutch sex education system, contains detailed descriptions of sexual practices and a 'dictionary-style' list of explicit terms, suggesting that children could avoid open discussion with their parents if this is likely to cause 'upset'.
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
Take five year cancer survival rates. Numerous studies have shown Britain falling well below the European average, with Britain starting to be overtaken or rivalled by countries such as Slovenia and even Poland. As an editorial in the Lancet Oncology said in September 2007: "Overall survival for all cancers combined in the UK as a whole is not only below the European average, it is also noticeably similar to some Eastern European Countries that spend less than one third of the UK’s per capita healthcare budget. "The reports show survival for gastric, colorectal, lung, breast, ovarian and prostate cancer in England is lower than the European average, and in some cases among the lowest in Europe".
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
Some of the horror stories are almost too much to bear. Try this for example: “An elderly, confused patient in her pyjamas was wheeled by a porter from her treatment to the entrance door, and left there. She was waiting for transport but obviously in dire need of care. She wore an incontinence pad that was saturated and the chair was also saturated with urine. She would get up and walk for a bit and then go back to the chair. No one spoke to her or tried to help her. She was just ignored. Was no one responsible for her care?“
For cancer, American patients, both men and women, have superior survival rates for all major types. For some specifics, per Verdecchia in Lancet Oncology, the breast cancer mortality rate is 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom than in the U.S.; prostate cancer mortality rates are strikingly worse in the UK than in the U.S.; mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher than in the U.S. -Scott W. Atlas, M.D.
Government, Incompetence, Greed, Socialism, Healthcare, Corruption
London: A former NHS hospital chief turned whistleblower has been paid £500,000 (Dh2.8 million) in a ‘supergag’ deal to prevent him discussing his concerns about patient safety. Gary Walker said he was asked to “compromise the safety of patients in order to achieve government targets” at the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust where he worked. Last night, an MP compared the situation to the scandal at Mid Staffordshire Trust where up to 1,200 patients died “unnecessarily” because of the focus on targets. Tory MP Stephen Phillips said he suspected there has been a scandal of “similar proportions” at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.
Union, Socialism, Healthcare
U.K. doctors will stage a partial strike on June 21, the first such step since the mid-1970s, after voting for action to resist proposed changes to their pensions, the British Medical Association said. Doctors working for the state-run National Health Service will postpone most non-essential work on June 21 and may do so for other 24-hour periods, the BMA, the doctors’ trade union, said today.
Government, Incompetence, Funny, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
A Big Mac burger is healthier than 75 per cent of National Health Service (NHS) hospital meals, a recent study conducted in the UK has revealed. The study examined twenty five different meals provided by an NHS food supply chain to find that sixty per cent of hospital food contained more salt than the popular McDonald's burger. Seventy five per cent had more saturated fat.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
Elderly women are being denied life-saving breast cancer surgery that is routinely given to younger patients, alarming research reveals. Some doctors look at a patient’s age in their notes – and decide on a treatment plan before they have even met them, experts warn. Their study, which provides evidence of ageism in the Health Service, found that 90 per cent of breast cancer patients aged 30-50 are offered surgery to remove tumours, compared with 70 per cent of those in their seventies.
America has the same difficulties with squeezed physicians, an aging population and spiraling patient demand. These are problems that the Affordable Care Act is supposed to solve. But Britain shows that a single-payer health service hasn't solved them. -Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Socialism, Healthcare
Survival rates for cancer in the UK are below the European average
Socialism, Healthcare
But after this the rate of decline of mortality in the U.S. was almost four times that of the UK.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
More than one in three NHS workers would not recommend their own hospital for treatment, a survey has found. More than four out of 10 NHS workers (45 per cent) say low staffing levels prevent them doing their job properly.
Socialism, Healthcare
Their requests have been rejected by regional health authorities who were accused of operating covert “blacklists” to restrict dozens of treatments to save money.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than 80 cases in which desperately sick NHS patients have been refused the cancer drugs their doctor sought, in the four months since a £200 million fund was introduced to stop health authorities rationing treatments.
Britain’s National Health Service, honoured as a national treasure during the London Olympics, is facing a major crisis with the release of a damning report that describes the service as failing at “every level” to care for patients. The report by lawyer Robert Francis called for sweeping changes to the NHS and said the service has a “tolerance of poor standards,” puts cost cutting ahead of patient care and has a culture that fails to follow even the most basic standards of care.
Government, Socialism, Healthcare
Eight thousand cancer patients are likely to have their lives cut short following a decision to withdraw NHS funding for 25 treatments. Medication which offers a last chance to patients with cancer a year - including those with breast, prostate and bowel disease - will no longer be funded by the NHS, under plans to scale back spending from April. Experts said that around two thirds of those who seek NHS treatment for advanced bowel cancer are likely to face an earlier death because of the decision.
Charities accused health officials of taking "a dramatic step backwards" and destroying a lifeline which prolongs the survival of thousands of cancer sufferers.
Socialism, Healthcare
The current law, under which helping someone commit suicide is illegal, is not fit for the 21st century, according to the West Midlands NHS Strategic Health Authority. Pauline Smith, the end of life care lead for the region, said it was “not good enough” that only those who could afford to travel to Dignitas suicide clinics in Switzerland were able to control their own deaths.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
More typically, a lack of publicly-funded dentists means that growing numbers go private: 78 percent of private patients said they were there because they could not find a National Health Service (NHS) dentist, and only 15 percent because of better treatment.
Socialism, Healthcare
Patients were routinely neglected or left “sobbing and humiliated” by staff at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.
The NHS used to be called the "Pride of Britain". In recent years it has faced reform after reform and news of its failings have shocked the nation. -Eileen Kersey
Socialism, Healthcare
Cameron brands NHS 'second-rate' in gaffe as he announces biggest shake-up in health service history
Government, Incompetence, Brilliance, Socialism, Healthcare
The Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins are two American health care brands that successfully expanded abroad. Now, Britain's government would like the National Health Service (NHS) to follow their lead. Giving a gentle push of encouragement, Britain's government expressed their desire to see the NHS brand try and sell their services to other countries in Europe and elsewhere...
Patients Allowed To Check Out Early
"The eyes of the world are turning to Great Britain," he proclaimed. "We now have the moral leadership of the world."
The Liverpool Care Pathway
"Very likely many elderly patients who could live substantially longer are being killed by the LCP."
Government Incompetence
We have spent unparalleled sums. Yet we have an NHS that is falling in productivity. -Julia Manning
Errors and Negligence
"We are simply facing nothing less than a moral breakdown: a fundamental collapse of decency, compassion and simple kindness."
Britain's NHS: Unimaginable Suffering
A Department of Health source said Mr Hunt wants to make sure NHS organisations value care as much as they value the quality of treatment. In particular he wants lessons to be learned from the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust scandal, where 1,200 people lost their lives needlessly because of appalling care.
The state should leave obese people alone as their early deaths would save the NHS money in the long run, the BBC presenter Michael Buerk has said.
He said overweight people should be allowed to indulge if they wished, and that they were “weak, not ill”.
Buerk, 73, host of The Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4, suggested that over-eating might actually benefit society. “The obese will die a decade earlier than the rest of us,” he wrote in Radio Times. “See it as a selfless sacrifice in the fight against demographic imbalance, overpopulation and climate change.”
-Matthew Moore