Thursday - December 06, 2012

america the awful?  and all these stories happened where exactly?

A few nights ago while listening to a radio panel on the subject of the welfare state, which included health care, is was no surprise to hear someone bring up America as an example.  To be avoided!  Every time they need an example of what to avoid they bring the US into the conversation. In this case, I was outraged to hear but not surprised, that our healthcare in America is the pits and probably the worst among the so called leading or advanced nations of the world.

Okay, lets admit shall we that our system of care in the USA is very far from perfect.
I have personally been witness to or else been involved in things so I darn well know we are not perfect.  So who is?  I also believe that some in the medical field along with ins companies, are the modern day robber barons.  So okay, I recognize we could stand improvement.

Anyway, what got my goat in particular was this one loon who gave as a valid example of how abused and ignored we are back home, the awful story without source btw as follows. On this he indicts an entire health care system?

Some poor fellow couldn’t see a dentist and as a result died.
OF A BROKEN TOOTH!  He was outraged on behalf of oppressed Americans I think.  And of course one of the other guys said, Oh no of course not.
We do not want the system America has. 

Well fine but what these idiots do have, thanks to their membership in the EU, is this.  And bmews readers will agree this is much better. Right?
Groan. Take a look. And they say we are bad? 

Speed up English tests for EU doctors, say MPs who accuse Government of making ‘no substantive progress’

· Doctors from European countries are free to work without language checks
· Due to a diktat from Brussels saying tests would impede movement of labour
· 23,000 doctors from Europe are registered to work in Britain despite never undergoing checks on their English or medical skills

By Sophie Borland

Ministers are not doing enough to make sure foreign doctors can speak good English, MPs warn.
They accuse the Government of making ‘no substantive progress’ on overturning strict European Union rules that forbid language tests.
At present, all GPs and hospital doctors from European countries are free to work in Britain without facing any form of national checks on their competence or English-speaking ability.
This is because of a diktat handed down from Brussels which states that such tests would impede the ‘freedom of movement of labour’ across the continent.
But there are widespread concerns that this is costing patients’ lives.
In 2008 70-year-old patient David Gray was killed by an incompetent German GP Daniel Ubani who gave him 20 times the legal dose of morphine.
The German doctor – who was on his first out-of-hours shift – had not had to prove his competence or ability with English before being employed by the NHS trust, Cambridgeshire. Now MPs from the Health Select Committee say they are ‘disappointed’ that the Government has not tried to change the law.
Officials from the Department of Health have insisted they are working with the EU to alter the legislation so checks can be made.
But a report by the committee warns that the current situation is ‘unsatisfactory’ and ‘poses a potential risk to patients’.
SOPHIE BORLAND

Damn straight. This is a far better system than what is in place in the medically backward America.  Everyone can agree on that. Right? 
And then there is this bit of brilliant medical work. Now mind you, I am not suggesting that this could never happen in the USA.  But that isn’t the point. These guys were so busy painting us black they seemed to forget things like this.

Abuse of elderly patients by NHS staff rises by a third in one year with a shocking 36,000 offences reported last year alone

By Sophie Borland
Thousands of elderly and vulnerable patients are being abused by carers and NHS staff, shocking figures reveal.
Some 36,600 offences were reported last year, mainly involving neglect, physical violence or bullying.
And the number of cases has risen by a third in the last 12 months, according to NHS Information Centre statistics.
This could partly be due to heightened awareness among family members and staff in the wake of recent scandals, such as that of the Winterbourne View care home.
But only this week the Health Secretary admitted that ‘cruelty’ had become ‘normal’ in some health and social care organisations.

Well heck that is small stuff. How many have actually died. Now I am skating on thin ice here because I have not even looked for figures in the USA. But given our size and population the number has to be high as well.

Nearly 3,000 patients die every year because of blunders on NHS wards and further 7,500 are left severely harmed

· Experts warn that mistakes on the ward will increase because already overstretched staff will be unable to cope with higher numbers of patients
· Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted that there may still be ‘pockets’ of poor care like that revealed in Mid Staffordshire in 2008

By Sophie Borland
Nearly 3,000 patients are dying a year because of needless hospital blunders, figures reveal.
Another 7,500 are severely harmed after being wrongly diagnosed, given incorrect drugs or poorly cared for.
Experts warn that such mistakes will increase because already overstretched staff will be unable to cope with the higher numbers of patients coming into hospitals.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted that there may still be ‘pockets’ of poor care like that revealed in Mid Staffordshire in 2008, where hundreds of patients died needlessly.
Figures obtained by Panorama in a BBC documentary to be aired tonight show that in 2011/12, a total of 2,864 patients died following mistakes by hospital staff.
This is up almost 5 per cent compared to the previous year when there were 2,726 deaths.
Errors include elderly patients being misdiagnosed with cancer when they had heart failure, and being given pointless treatment while they deteriorated.
In other cases nurses or midwives failed to notice chest infections in newborn babies which could have been cured with antibiotics.

Ok enough of all that. All you have to do is follow the link for Borland at the Mail and there’s a nightmare collection of stories.
No wait a minute. That is not enough. This is though. Maybe. No promises.
Our critics like to tell tales of how those poor Americans can not get help and so are abandoned by a broken or care-less system of health. Oh yeah?
Explain this one away ass-wipe. Did this happen in the USA recently? Oh, it was here you say?

How could our girl die of asthma attack in hospital? Damning report reveals failings in NHS care of patients ‘treated worse than animals’

· The Patients Association report discloses how some doctors are ‘acting like God’ by telling relatives they will not try and resuscitate their loved ones
· Other distraught family members have spoken of lack of compassion amongst staff who don’t care if patients ‘lived or die’

By Sophie Borland

Nurses who didn’t know how to give the kiss of life went into a panic when a child was admitted to hospital with a severe asthma attack.

Her family described scenes of hysteria as staff who were meant to be helping their daughter desperately tried to call senior medics to ask them what to do.
Three days later, 15-year-old Lauren Hughes died having suffered brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.

The appalling case was revealed by her parents today in a damning report by the Patients Association into failings in NHS care.

Pat and Dolly Hughes said one nurse became so distraught at the Ross-on-Wye community hospital she had to be calmed down by a colleague.
They said they couldn’t understand how a healthy teenager was able to die of an asthma attack while in hospital.

The hospital trust later admitted the nurses at its minor injuries unit weren’t trained in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and should have dialled 999.

Lauren had been taken to the unit by her mother when she started to suffer an asthma attack.
Initially they couldn’t even get into the hospital as the door had been locked for the evening.

Lauren – who was in obvious distress – was also ignored by two paramedics walking out of the hospital who did not stop to help or even let her in.

She was eventually transferred to University Hospital North Staffordshire but died three days after the initial attack in May.

Okay this is I now promise the very last one. It’s from last year but so what.
It happened here, not in the awful USA where a guy can die cos he didn’t see a dentist.

Teenager, 14, is paralyzed for life after hospital left spinal anesthetic in for too long

By Sophie Borland

A teenage girl has been left paralysed for life after an appalling blunder by doctors during a routine operation.
Sophie Tyler, 17, was given an overdose of the painkilling epidural drug after surgery to remove gallstones.
Doctors wrongly left the tube in her back for two days and the large quantities of the drug damaged her spinal cord, leaving her paralysed from the waist down.

BORLAND

Posted by peiper     on 12/06/2012 at 04:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Health-Medicine •  
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