Daily Horror Story
As for Canada, yes, under socialized health care, prescription drugs are cheaper, medical treatment’s cheaper, life is cheaper. After much stonewalling, the Province of Quebec’s Health Department announced this week that in the last year some 600 Quebecers had died from C. difficile, a bacterium acquired in hospital. In other words, if, say, Bill Clinton had gone for his heart bypass to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, he would have had the surgery, woken up the next day swimming in diarrhea and then died. It’s a bacterium caused by inattention to hygiene—by unionized, unsackable cleaners who don’t clean properly; by harassed overstretched hospital staff who don’t bother washing their hands as often as they should. So 600 people have been killed by the filthy squalor of disease-ridden government hospitals. That’s the official number. Unofficially, if you’re over 65, the hospitals will save face and attribute your death at their hands to “old age” or some such and then “lose” the relevant medical records. --Mark Steyn 10-24-04
Posted by Oink
11/17/2005 at 09:37 AM
Hillary turd-world style “health care"… be forewarned, that’s what the libs want for all of us.
One would be better off going to the local veterenarian at the doggie clinic.
LC RP
Guns don’t kill people, bad “medicine” does.
OCM: That’s half of the damned truth: get the hell out of the hospital ASAP if you want to get well. Your roommate has TB, your neighbors are exhaling Pseudomonas, E coli, etc. BUT, it helps when The Staff washes their hands in between emptying their bedpans and taking your temp.
Posted by Oink
11/17/2005 at 10:44 AM
Dottie: I see you’re with us—must have the day off from the hospital, or night shift. I’ll bet you’ve quit nursing jobs in digust over the level of patient care.
Posted by Oink
11/17/2005 at 11:42 AM
Canada’s Socialized Medicine is called Medicare. Canada’s Medicare doesn’t cover Rx (Drugs). Socialized Medicine means no Rx coverage. I can’t believe OCM would stick up for Socialized Medicine. No matter, Canada’s Single-Payer system is unconstitutional even in Canada. Socialized Medicine is dead on arrival in the USA. We have a Constitution too.
Top court strikes down Quebec private health-care ban
Last Updated Thu, 09 Jun 2005 21:33:36 EDT
CBC News
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday that the Quebec government cannot prevent people from paying for private insurance for health-care procedures covered under medicare.
In a 4-3 decision, the panel of seven justices said banning private insurance for a list of services ranging from MRI tests to cataract surgery was unconstitutional under the Quebec Charter of Rights, given that the public system has failed to guarantee patients access to those services in a timely way.As a result of delays in receiving tests and surgeries, patients have suffered and even died in some cases, justices Beverley McLachlin, Jack Major, Michel Bastarache and Marie Deschamps found for the majority.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/06/09/newscoc-health050609.html
Posted by Z Woof
11/17/2005 at 05:38 PM
Very generous of Socialists! Albeit by 4-3, you are not forced to accept suck-ass medical care, if you want to pay for the real thing. If we’re going Kinder-Gentler Totalitarianism (for your own good, naturally) I think everyone should be forced to suffer equally. See my comment #1.
Oh! I get it.. the Government Officials wanted to be able to save their own lives!
Posted by Oink
11/17/2005 at 05:51 PM
Universal precautions - wash hands, wash hands, wash hands..........before patient care and after - even if using gloves........
Day off, Oink.......spent the day cleaning out & throwing out stuff.........am about to have my master bath remodeled, which means I have to move into the main bath, which means throw out stuff in both bathrooms that has been accumulating.............am on a roll - want to de-clutter my life!!!!!!!Posted by Dottie
11/17/2005 at 09:00 PM
DOTTIE: Repeat question—didj’a ever quit a nursing job because the patient care was deplorable and the quality of administration made it unlkely to improve? Most nurses I knew had.
P.S. By the end of my career at The VA Hospital I had nursing lingo down pretty good. I hardly ever needed to ask a question during rounds.
Posted by Oink
11/17/2005 at 09:08 PM
I had major abdominal surgery with a 30cm (1 ft) incision and the hospital folks put me in a room with a guy who, daily, crapped all over himself. The stench actually woke me from the drug induced haze of post op. Got C-diffe from the @sshole before his wife sent him on to a nursing home. The stench didn’t just make your eyes water. The stench was a physical assault on all of your senses. I swear I saw a greenish mist come drifting over at least once or twice.
Oink - Nope, have never quit a nursing job except for moving to a different state................have worked in 3 hospitals in my career (39 years) - one in Salem, MA for 6 years..........in Westerly,R.I. for 10 years and at my present hospital in St. Louis for 21 years...........In my current hospital, a small suburban facility within the BarnesJewish Healthcare System, my Emergency Dept. has consistently ranked #1 within the system in all areas of patient care - we are very proud of this achievement. The only time I did not work was when my (then)husband & I lived in Long Beach, Miss. - I was pregnant at the time & one was never hired if one was pregnant (early 70’s). Our facility is always looking to improve patient care..............Earlier this evening I went to a meeting of a committee I am on - Recruitment & Retention- our focus is on recruiting the best nurses and retaining them........retaining quailified nurses is a major problem in all area hospitals and we are working on solving this problem in our facility..........I love nursing & I love my job & expect to be here until I retire - am currently looking into semi-retiring next year if the “numbers"i.e. my income from all sources, work out.........Does this answer your question?
Posted by Dottie
11/17/2005 at 09:48 PM
Kirk - from 1998 to 2004 I have had many hospitalizations, from pulmonary emboli to pneumonia, to several surgeries - a Chole, an Appy, 3 incisional hernia repairs, a colectomy, an ERCP, several colonoscopies for polyps and not once did I have any problems with hospital induced infections................My major problem was with amnesia for 4 days after my ERCP & that was due to the drugs used post-op.......a combination of a Demerol PCA pump & IV injections of Ativan every 6 hours..........I had Demerol prior so I think it was the Ativan - thus I now list Ativan as an allergy & will never let anyone prescribe it again for me........My hospital prides itself with very few hospital induced infections..........
Posted by Dottie
11/17/2005 at 10:05 PM
Dottie, sweetie! You can give me a sponge bath any time you want! I’m sure I’d be in good hands ....
Mheh-heh-he-he-he-he ....
Kirk: Yea, my hospitalized Dad had the “Howler Monkey”—a sad demented man from a nursing home, who made loud cries, eeriely like the aforesaid animal day and night. Yours was worse. My few roommates have been cool guys—party time. Jokes, bullshit, and fun.
Dot: Three hospitals in 39 years is unusual. Did you get the private email I sent with my wife’s column about the paternalistic early years of nursing? I hope you have good health and an enjoyable retirement. Do you agree that there are hospitals to be avoided even if you had cardiac arrest? (slight exaggeration)
My favorite nursing story. A very young female nurse at the VA requested that her patient be reassigned. The reason was his obvious
sexual arousal whenever she cared for him. The Head Nurse had to burst her bubble. The man had a “hatrack” type erectile dysfunction prosthesis. 
For you non-medical types—he had a low-rent penile implant that was always “up”, not the more sophisticated inflatable type.
Posted by Oink
11/17/2005 at 10:32 PM
Dottie, I agree that some hospitals are really good about reducing/eliminating post-op infections, but some are pretty bad. I commend your hospital for being on the good side of the bell curve. Those on the bad side however, need to improve their record. The thing I hated most about my stay was the removal of the tape used to hold IV’s in place. They only allowed the OR nursing staff to shave off hair on the IV sites. Hairy arms and tape are not friends.
Kirk: It’s tough to be assertive when you’re sick, helpless and dependent. If you were capable of shaving your face you could have handled the chore yourself and invite them to take their rules and a tube of KY Jelly and ...
This is one reason why patients benefit from visitors who are advocates. Once, I brought my three young kids to visit their hospitalized Grandama. In her room there was a used needle on the window shelf. Just like The Skipper & we all agree—you’re responsible for defending yourself. And your family.
Posted by Oink
11/17/2005 at 10:49 PM
In Britain the Labour (aka socialist) Party came to power with a pledge to get the National Health System working. The budget has doubled in real terms since 1997. Administration alone has increased by £1.3 billion ($2.2 billion) and yet the service is no better. I dread becoming ill or having an accident and having to get treated. You would probably come out worse than you went in.
When I was a callow youth I lived for a time in Iowa. I worked for a couple of guys who had been in the US army (82nd and 101st Airborne) having seen action in Korea and Vietnam. I had come from England believeing social medicine was a “good thing” They considered social medicine an anathema and rubbished the concept at every opportunity. However 25 years on I know they were right. It would worry me if I lived in the US and couldn’t afford insurance, but as I see it social medicine is like a black hole. The more money you throw at it the more it absorbs. The staff want more money, the managers more staff, the drug companies want more cash and so it goes on till the country is bankrupt. Just look at France!
We have the same illusions about public education, despite clear evidence that private-run schools are superior. The phrase is, “packing sand down a rathole”.
Posted by Oink
11/18/2005 at 04:07 AM
OCM is right, the USA has the best healthcare in the world.
The rest of the world benefits from American healthcare.
America’s largest industry, healthcare financing, is going through fundamental changes.
This change, America’s Ownership Society, will also change the World’s Socialist approach. Same with Social Security, when America reforms it’s system the rest of the world will follow.
Walter Williams, guest hosting for Rush Limbaugh today, said, “The United States has between $60 and $70 Trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities in Social Security and Medicare to date.”
Posted by Z Woof
11/18/2005 at 05:05 PM
Oink -I did not get the e-mail you sent me - can you send it through again?
Posted by Dottie
11/18/2005 at 10:24 PM
Dottie: Will do today. I’ll send via BMEWS email. If you do not get, email me tomorrow at ponzi9 at yahoo dot com.(death to spambots!) I was wondering when you’d respond to my meercat comment....
Posted by Oink
11/19/2005 at 08:07 AM
Skipper re #16 - I doubt you would be needing a sponge bath from me if you are moving to Heidi’s flesh farm......hehehehehehehehe
Oink - got your e-mail this morning & sent off a reply - thanks
Oink re #17 - many years ago when my hospital was under different ownership, we had a urologist who was famous for his penile implant surgeies for impotent men............Men would come from all over the mid-west to have this procedure done - the men would have a “story” for being in St. Louis to have this done i.e, they were on vacation, a business trip, a cruise,etc., so that their wife, girlfriend, s.o. would not know the real reason they were away from their hometowns....... A man would have to “push” a button in his scrotum to get it up.........
..........Am not familiar with the current implants as we don’t do that type of surgery anymore........
Posted by Dottie
11/19/2005 at 10:25 AM
11/18/2005 at 03:32 AM
