Starving Under Socialized Health Care
It’s not been a good few weeks for Britain’s National Health Service since it was dragged into the debate over plans to reform the U.S. health care system. After U.S. opponents of ObamaCare and domestic critics — such as MEP Daniel Hannan — highlighted problems with the NHS (some very real, others exaggerated) to warn against the dangers of socialized medicine, defenders of our state-run system rallied to its defense, dismissing the concerns of U.S. conservatives as scaremongering.
One of the biggest areas of concern for those who oppose increasing government control over health care in the U.S. is the issue of end-of-life care, a debate that’s generally framed in terms of “pulling the plug on grandma” and “death panels.” Since I wrote the piece linked above, several stories have emerged in the British press suggesting that, despite all the protestations to the contrary, under socialized health care the lives of thousands of elderly and terminally-ill patients are ended prematurely through a combination of neglect, incompetence, and misjudgments by doctors.
First up was a report by a body representing NHS patients, which claimed that hundreds of thousands of patients have received “neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel” treatment. This included patients receiving inadequate food and drink and having operations repeatedly canceled and symptoms misdiagnosed. In many cases the failings contributed directly to a patient’s death.
A few days later came a report which claimed that prisoners in Britain’s jails have a better diet than hospital patients.
Then, a group of doctors wrote to a newspaper to warn that NHS guidelines designed to improve care for the terminally ill were in fact resulting in patients having their lives ended prematurely. The scenario is as follows. A patient loses consciousness due to the side-effects of drugs or because of dehydration. A doctor interprets the loss of consciousness as an indication that the patient is close to death — and so food, water, and medication are withdrawn. No panels, no pulled plugs — just an inevitable downward spiral ending with an officially sanctioned and apparently “natural” death.
As I have related in my previous piece, I have intimate knowledge of how the NHS works, or fails to work. On several occasions my elderly mother was admitted to a hospital from her nursing home after becoming semi-conscious, usually following some minor illness unrelated to the dementia that eventually killed her. Each time the doctors would explain that there wasn’t much they could do, but each time the immediate problem turned out to be nothing more than dehydration.
Each time mum would come back to life, like the pot plant in ET, after a few hours hooked up to a saline drip.
On one occasion I remember the consultant coming around, spending about a minute assessing mum’s condition, and proclaiming that “all we can do is keep her comfortable.” The next day, one of the junior doctors working under the consultant was stunned to find mum sitting up in bed, talking to me, and drinking a cup of tea.
I was more or less raised by my elderly great-grandparents, and I adore old people – their stories and histories, their sense of ethics, their liveliness and passion for life. On reading this, well, there are no words. It’s disgusting, horrific, and immoral. Bless you, Mr. McNally, for helping the elderly that you could.
Next: stories from Lapland to scare you out of supporting health care reform!
#2. bibio44, we are not opposed to healthcare reform, but we are opposed to a healthcare takeover.
Obama’s distorions and lies regarding covering illegals is scary enough.
Obama’s distortions and lies regarding covering illegals is scary enough.
Like the author, I do not consider food and hydration extraordinary support and currently have this issue with my mother. Mom can feed herself, but the solids have to be pureed like applesauce and her liquids thickened to the consistency of a heavy syrup. When she was hospitalized recently initially they had her on a liquid diet, which she couldn’t swallow without aspiration. It looked like she was not responding to treatment for the irregular heart beat when the real problem was lack of hydration and nutrition. Once they her rehydrated, she bounced right back under the change in heart medication.
I’ll give the hospital credit for making her meals visually appealing once they got the consistency correct. They had molds to shape the pureed potroast to look like meatloaf and the pureed chicked like a poached and sauced boneless breast.
Parents and Grandparents are not throwaways. Families need to be alert and caring, be there for meals and be in the face of the health drones there for a paycheck.
Encourage constant drinking … water, water, water.
American nursing homes are no different, sad to say, than the NHS in England. Worse, perhaps, because we expect more (or delude ourselves so we are not bothered) so don’t pay attention.
There are horror stories galore and avoidance is the best remedy … foster homes, home stay, etc. beats starvation and dehydration in our various forms of institutions.
“Just” (not to minimalize … but to describe the immediacy) the latest obscene example of
HUMAN CONTROL (TIP: it has nothing to do with “health” … or “care”).
WE MUST *S*T*O*P* *T*H*I*S* *M*O*N*S*T*E*R*.
under socialized health care the lives of thousands of elderly and terminally-ill patients are ended prematurely through a combination of neglect, incompetence, and misjudgments by doctors
Please, I’ll proffer a-gin:
A Hidden Shame, Alan Judd and Andy Miller, Atlanta Journal-Constitution..
The community-based extension of this EXACT system almost killed me through ongoing mismanagement due to an unconscionably overtaxed system..
When all was said and done, the doctor whom I could only get an audience with twice in near a year’s time yelled in my face that my Life was not her responsibility.. In hindsight, she was acting just like any stereotypical government employee who had no fear there would be accountability for her actions..
I personally will not let them do this to our entire country.. I will do all in my Human powers and ever-changing abilities to legally trump them on that.
Warmest wishes from Talking Rock…
As far as folks like Bibio are concerned, the only pertinent anecdotes from other countries are those that show how superior the health care system is in France and Germany. Detailed and specific accounts that illustrate how horrifying socialized health care could be just don’t count.