I’ve been cynically amused by the closet socialists calling for the US to adopt a system of nationalized, universal health care. They clearly haven’t learned from the many horror stories emanating from countries that have done so. (On the other hand, reality has never been much of an issue for the Left – their ideology blinds them to it! Their whole focus is on how things should be, not how they really are.)
The latest such horror story comes from England, where the National Health Service’s shortcomings have once again hit center stage.
Malnutrition killed more than 240 patients on NHS wards in 2007, the highest toll in a decade, figures show.
. . .
Since 1997, 2,311 hospital patients have died from malnutrition and the effects of hunger.
There were 209 cases in 1997, when Tony Blair was elected under a pledge to save the NHS. Ten years later the toll was 242.
In one area the number of deaths from malnutrition rose by more than 50 per cent.
The figures also show that over the past decade 55 patients have starved to death in council-run care homes.
. . .
Food is often so unappetising that patients do not eat – and 11 million meals are taken away untouched every year.
Sometimes food is placed out of patients’ reach and taken away untouched, because nurses claim they are too busy to help patients eat.
. . .
Some of the patients would have been suffering from malnutrition when they entered hospital.
However, the figures come just weeks after it was revealed that more patients are discharged from hospital with malnutrition than are admitted with the condition – and the overall figures are rising.
In 1997, 70,658 patients were admitted with malnutrition and 75,431 discharged from hospital with it.
By 2007, these figures had jumped to 130,594 admitted and 139,127 discharged.
There’s more at the link.
I hope and pray that those campaigning for a universal health care system in the USA will continue to be thwarted . . . but it’s a priority for our present Administration, and they don’t seem interested in learning from such horror stories. We may yet end up like this, or like Canada, where people are dying because they’re having to wait too long for treatment (unless they can afford to come to the US and pay for the necessary treatment out of their own pocket, as many of them do).
Next time someone tries to sell you a socialist bill of goods about national health care, ask them about this – and watch them duck and dive! The truth is not in them.
Peter
An interesting view on National Health Care in England
http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/cargocult.html
NICE as cargo cult science
Infostat bears some resemblance to science. But the Infostat technologies which led-up to the creation of NICE are actually an example of what Richard Feynman called ‘cargo cult’ science: an activity presenting the facade of science but without the substance (1986).
Feynman described how remote and undeveloped South Seas islands briefly enjoyed prosperity when used as US air bases during the Second World War. When peace came the air force left, and with it the prosperity. On the islands quasi-religions developed with the goal of attracting cargo-bearing aeroplanes to return and restore the golden age. These cults took the trappings of a technological culture – runways, marker flares, control towers, headphones, aerials etc. – but all constructed from wood and stone technology. Everything was assembled in the proper way, the appearance of everything seemed just about right, the people went through the right motions… but the planes never landed.
By analogy, Infostat has many of the trappings of science – researchers, data collection, statistics, large grants, publications and so on and so forth. Its practitioners chatter about concepts such as ‘evidence’, ‘effectiveness’, ‘measurement’ and ‘rigour’. NICE even appoints a Professor of clinical pharmacology as its Chair – someone who wears a white coat, does ward rounds and used to work in a laboratory. But like the cargo cult, it is just a facade. It superficially looks like science but it just doesn’t work – no cumulative, ‘reliable knowledge’ results. No planes land.