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.
