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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (77925)	2/25/2010 11:53:02 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Brit links hundreds of deaths to government-run health care By: Barbara Hollingsworth Local Opinion Editor 02/25/10 11:27 AM EST Between 400 and 1,200 patients in Britain’s National Health Service may have died prematurely as a result of “a lack of care and mistreatment which have no place in any civilized and well run health service,” according to a shocking new report released by Queen’s Counsel Robert Francis. The death toll at one hospital was 47 percent higher than normal; four members of one family, including a newborn girl, died within 18 months as a result of medical blunders. Patients were “systematically mistreated,” and often left in urine-and feces-soaked beds for “unacceptable amounts of time,” according to the independent inquiry into conditions at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust from 2005 to 2009. Relatives reported finding loved ones covered with feces, including one retired agronomist who begged his sister-in-law not to enter his room because of the stench. “He was a very fastidious man and he really was left lying in his own excrement,” she told investigators. “There can no longer be any excuse for denying the enormity of what occurred,” the report said. Quoting Florence Nightingale (“It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm”), it added: “Unfortunately, this requirement has not been met at Stafford Hospital.” Yet not a single NHS official has been disciplined. The report cited aloof managers with six-figure salaries who were constantly tinkering with management structure, but “not involved on a day-to-day basis, the “battle-fatigued attitude of staff,” and “a sense of chaos and a lack of reflection about what might be the fundamental problems.” The fundamental problem, of course, is that British government runs the same hospital it was supposed to be regulating. The bean counters rewarded hospital managers for cost-cutting and staff cuts, ignoring bloodied wards, soiled linens, discarded needles and used dressings that constantly spread infection. Desperate patients were left without food and water, with some resorting to drinking from flower vases to quench their thirst. Others were subjected to “inhumane treatment,” “bullying,” and “rudeness” when they complained. The report made 18 recommendations, including a new review of how NHS regulators monitor government-run hospitals. But that’s like putting a band-aid on an amputation. As Francis’ report proves, the British government can’t run hospitals or monitor them. Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com