Rhetoric:
“In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We’ve all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false. Like every system, the National Health Service has problems, but over all it appears to provide quite good care …”
— Paul Krugman, NY Times, August 17, 2009
“Cynics beware, I am romantic about the National Health Service; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country.” ... “Britain, you chose well.”— Donald Berwick, President Hope&Change’s hand-picked Medicare/Medicare director, July, 2008
Reality:
You know what happens when you let government bureaucrats run your “free” health care?
You get a 25-year-old woman dying for no good reason in her hospital bed:
Girl Texted Pics of Herself Dying
By Staff Reporter
30 Jul 2010A DESPERATE woman texted photos of herself slowly DYING to her mum as she lay suffering on a hospital bed - being ignored by NHS doctors.
Tragic Jo Dowling, 25, sent over forty messages to her mother and best friend including pictures of a deadly rash spreading across her body as her life ebbed away.
The pretty youngster was diagnosed by her family GP with suspected Meningococcal Septicaemia after developing a purple skin rash and low blood pressure last November.
She was rushed to Milton Keynes Hospital where A&E doctors rejected the diagnosis believing instead her illness was a mild infection caused by her Cystic Fibrosis.
Doctors abandoned Jo on a observation ward and gave her headache tablets and fluids as they failed to spot the purple rash spread over her arms, hands and legs.
As the hours passed terrified Jo took photos of her rash on her mobile phone and sent them to her mum and best friend describing her condition as “getting worse”.
The meningitis bug left her in septic shock choking and coughing as fluid filled her lungs and she died four hours after her last text message - just 14 hours after arriving at hospital.
Her family yesterday accused the hospital of “neglect” after an inquest at Milton Keynes Coroners’ Court heard doctors failed to spot she was suffering ‘blood poisoning shock’.
Coroner Tom Osborne criticised the hospital for a “communication breakdown” that led to her death as tragically a simple dose of penicillin and antibiotics would have saved Jo’s life.
The inquest heard there were only two doctors on duty to cover the entire hospital the night Jo died.
Devastated mum Sue Christie, 48, of Milton Keynes, a distribution worker, said: “Our doctor knew it was meningitis but when we got to hospital all the care seemed to stop. …
… Trainee GP Vivake Roddah failed to keep a written observation record but told the inquest he did not see Jo’s purple rash on her hands, arms and legs.
Five nurses also told the two day hearing they did not spot any rash on Jo’s body.
As her condition worsened Jo swapped 42 text messages with friends and her mum describing her illness and symptoms.
Just two hours after doctors ruled out meningitis she texted a friend to say “rash is getting worse”.
She took around 10 photos of the purple rash on her legs, hands and arms and sent one to her mum complaining her condition was not improving.
Her death was pronounced at 5.20am on November 24 three hours after hospital logs show she was last checked on.
Lovely. Aren’t you looking forward to this? As long as everybody’s covered. Everybody’s covered. Everybody’s covered.
Covered with a body bag, maybe.
John at Power Line says:
That's what happens under government medicine. Political considerations are substituted for medical judgment, and over time many doctors and nurses, government employees all, come to view their patients much as postal employees view the letters and packages they sort. With no competition, patients have no choices, and the quality of care steadily erodes even as the price—like the price of everything run by government—rises.
Welcome to the future, suckers.
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