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The Spectacle Blog
The Telegraph highlights a new report by Britain’s Healthcare Commission finding that between 400 to 1,200 patients died in Mid-Staffordshire hospitals in the past three years due to “failures at almost every stage of care of emergency patients.”
Specifically:
The investigation of the trust now called the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, found overstretched and poorly trained nurses who turned off equipment because they did not know how to work it, newly qualified doctors left to care for patients recovering from surgery at night, patients left for hours in soiled bedclothes, reception staff expected to judge how seriousness of patients arriving at A&E, patients left without food or drink, others who received the wrong medication or none at all, blood and faeces left on lavatories and floors, and doctors diverted away from seriously ill patients in order to treat minor ones who were in danger of breaching the four hour waiting time target.
Liberals like to perpetuate this myth that government-run health care systems achieve more universal care at less cost, but they try to avoid dealing with the fact that less cost also means lower quality of care. This is a perfect example of why central planning doesn’t work. Britain’s emergency rooms have struggled with long wait times that are a natural consequence of socialized medicine, so the reaction was to set a target for a four hour wait time. Yet becuse doctors are so interested in checking off that box, they can’t make their own decisions about how to prioritize treatment of their patients.
According to the Telegraph, the report also found that the trust that runs the hospitals “was more concerned with hitting targets, gaining Foundation Trust status and marketing and had ‘lost sight’ of its responsibilities for patient care…”
And this is exactly the type of thinking that the Obama administration would instill if they got their way on health care. While ObamaCare differs in degree — for now — it is rooted in the same fundamental belief that the government can expand care and reduce costs by imposing standards to be applied systemwide.
View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/03/17/death-by-socialized-medicine
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MT| 3.17.09 @ 6:32PM
Since the government will run both, does this mean that my health care and DMV experiences will be similar? Great.
Pingback| 3.17.09 @ 7:00PM
Death By Socialized Medicine — But As For Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
P Driver, UK | 3.17.09 @ 8:21PM
I think you may have missed the point somewhat. By moving to 'Foundation Status', the hospital moved out of direct government control and oversight and that appears to have been at the root of what went wrong here.
ruth| 3.17.09 @ 9:02PM
Oh, sure, your health care system is a disaster because the government DIDN'T have direct control and oversight. If you believe that, Brit, I've got some amazing swamp land here to sell you. Barnum was right, "There's a sucker born every minute."
P Driver again | 3.17.09 @ 9:43PM
I didn't quite say that.
None of the UK hospitals are directly run by the state, but most are funded by taxation and traditionally they have been indirectly accountable to the government through various regulatory bodies.
However, although Foundation hospitals are still funded by taxation, they are subject to a much lighter regulation regime run by an independent regulator, not part of the state.
So all I was saying was that this isn't really a good example to show state control = poor standards, because this hospital is not state controlled.
Sorry you think I'm a sucker Ruth, I was trying to help inform debate. I really couldn't say what lesson there is, if any for US health policy. I'm sure you're quite capable of drawing your own conclusions about what, if anything this proves.
At least 400 people appear to have died for no good reason and that's not acceptable in any country.
ruth| 3.17.09 @ 9:49PM
Sorry, didn't mean to offend you--I just don't trust government with health care. I have great doctors now, and excellent care, and I don't want to lose either.
K~Bob| 3.17.09 @ 11:08PM
I'm sure the study is only picking up those who died because of complications from mismanagement. It doesn't pick up the greater numbers who died because of doctors following government-approved guidelines. I know several folks who would be dead, if treated under the guidelines for their disease in Britain. They are glad to be alive today thanks to doctors in the US who keep up with the latest information.
If we socialize medicine here, *everyone* needs to start building up a savings fund strictly for traveling to India or Singapore for advanced medical treatment.
CH| 3.17.09 @ 11:15PM
India? That makes me want to vomit.
Die Rechte Ecke| 3.17.09 @ 11:34PM
P Driver - not sure why you're even behind the system you like.
Here's the problem - Britain didn't listen to Mr. Churchill, nor Hayek, or Orwell (really, that's just a pen-name, I know) and you believe that socialism will still cure our ills?
What makes you think so? What angel will come down here and make it happen.
Socialism eradicates accountability, because it has nothing to do with the general direction in the planned state.
Have fun with your Islamic multitudes, if they let you.
DH| 3.18.09 @ 6:52AM
P Driver: If moving to Foundation Trust status was the root of the problem, then why is that not a "government failure"? Reading the story and watching the video, it seems that to move that way the hospital had to "check off the boxes" and "hit targets." I presume it did that because that's the government process for moving to Foundation Trust status, although I'll have to take more time to familiarize myself with the process: http://www.monitor-nhsft.gov.uk/home/our-publications/guidance-applicants/applying-nhs-foundation-trust-status-guide-applicants . Nevertheless, its reasonable to ask if the standards that the government uses to determine such status do not support good patient care.
Martin Elligham| 3.18.09 @ 8:47AM
The National Heath Service is funded by the British government, but managed (for the most part) by regional bureaucracies. Foundation trusts are still taxpayer supported. There are true private hospitals in the UK that provide much better care than the standard NHS hospital. NHS being part of government it is subject to the whims of politicians. Hospital upgrades or closings can be determined by the influence of their Member of Parliament and they have the same amount of accountability as U.S. financial regulators. My favorite irony of free medical care in the UK is parking at UK hospitals is outrageously expensive.
Bongo | 3.18.09 @ 9:47AM
On the other hand, no one in the UK dies from poverty. That's why its a civilised country and the US isn't.
Roy| 3.18.09 @ 10:37AM
Oh come on, Bongo - the UK still has a long way to go before it reaches the state of that pinnacle of "civilization", the USSR.
Angel| 3.18.09 @ 12:35PM
Who dies from poverty in the US, Bongo? I bet you haven't missed a meal in a while.
Aaron| 11.26.09 @ 12:20PM
Thousands of people die in the U.S. everyday from poverty. It's just that the cause of death is always listed as something else, like a treatable disease that they couldn't afford to get treatment for or homeless people that die either of starvation or suicide.
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