UK Health Care Scandal Breaking: Neglectful, Cruel Treatment of 1 Million Patients Reported
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 27, 2009
While the Democrats, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, are frantically clamoring for Congress to quickly pass ObamaCare here in America, in the shadow of Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy’s death to “honor him,” this damaging report was just released by a news source in the United Kingdom.
The case against government-run health care’s huge price tag, inadequacies, and quality risks has just become much stronger. And more horrifying.
The outrageous guilt trip that Pelosi and her Democrat goons are trying to smother us with, using Sen. Kennedy as the dangling corpse-carrot, so as to push through the horrible ObamaCare is repulsive. Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh predicted not long ago that they would try this shameless tactic, should Kennedy die, to ram it through… well, Rush was right.
A truly shocking report from the UK’s Telegraph:
‘Cruel and neglectful’ care of one million NHS patients exposed
One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.
Telegraph | By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
August 27, 2009
In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with ‘neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel’ treatment.
The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.
The Patients Association said the dossier proves that while the scale of the scandal at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust – where up to 1,200 people died through failings in urgent care – was a one off, there are repeated examples they have uncovered of the same appalling standards throughout the NHS.
[...]
Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association and a former nurse, said:“For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses. I am sickened by what has happened to some part of my profession of which I was so proud.
“These bad, cruel nurses may be – probably are – a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two percent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the Register.”
The charity has published a selection of personal accounts from hundreds of relatives of patients, most of whom died, following their care in NHS hospitals.
They cite patient surveys which show the vast majority of patients highly rate their NHS care – but, with some ten million treated a year, even a small percentage means hundreds of thousands have suffered.
Ms Rayner said it was by “sad coincidence” that she trained as a nurse with one of the patients who had “suffered so much”.
She went on: “I know that she, like me, was horrified by the appalling care she had before she died.
“We both came from a generation of nurses who were trained at the bedside and in whom the core values of nursing were deeply inculcated.”
Katherine Murphy, Director of the Patients Association, said “Whilst Mid Staffordshire may have been an anomaly in terms of scale the PA knew the kinds of appalling treatment given there could be found across the NHS. This report removes any doubt and makes this clear to all. Two of the accounts come from Stafford, and they sadly fail to stand out from the others.
“These accounts tell the story of the two percent of patients that consistently rate their care as poor (in NHS patient surveys).
“If this was extrapolated to the whole of the NHS from 2002 to 2008 it would equate to over one million patients. Very often these are the most vulnerable elderly and terminally ill patients. It’s a sad indictment of the care they receive.”
The Patients Association said one hospital had threatened it with legal action if it chose to publish the material.Pamela Goddard, a piano teacher from Bletchingley, in Surrey, was 82 and suffering with cancer but was left in her own excrement and her condition deteriorated due to her bed sores.
Florence Weston, from Sedgley in the West Midlands, died aged 85 and had to remain without food or water for several days as her hip operation was repeated cancelled.
The charity released the dossier to highlight the poor care which a minority of patients in the NHS are subjected to.
Ms Murphy said the numbers rating care as poor came despite investment in the NHS doubling and the number of frontline nurses increasing by more than a quarter since 1996.
The personal stories were revealed to prevent their cases being ignored as only representing a small portion of patients.
The report said: “These are patients, not numbers. These are people, not statistics.”
Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said he was concerned that public confidence in the NHS could be undermined by the examples cited and it would affect morale in hardworking staff.
He said: “The level of care described by these families is completely unacceptable, and we will not condone nurses who behave in ways that are contrary to the principles and ethics of the profession.
“However we believe that the vast majority of nurses are decent, highly skilled individuals.
“This report is based on the two per cent of patients who feel that their care was unacceptable. Two per cent is too many but we are concerned that this might undermine the public’s confidence in the world-class care they can expect to receive from the NHS.”
[...]
Chris Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer at the Department of Health said the care in the cases highlighted by the PA was “simply unacceptable”.
This serves as a warning. Government-run health care is a travesty. Tell your congressmen that we don’t want a repeat of what is happening now in the UK… we DON’T want their socialized health care plan.
Ever.
Additional reading on health care:
Hot Air: Dems’ new rallying cry: Let’s pass this trillion-dollar travesty for Teddy and Coming up: circumcision campaigns
WSJ Blog, Washington Wire: Kennedy’s Death Spurs Calls to Pass Health Legislation
Irish Election: The next healthcare scandal?
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood: Daily Gut: Forget Kanye, It’s All Russell
BBC News: ‘Basic care’ lacking in hospitals
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Rush Was Right: Dems Call For “The Kennedy Memorial Health Bill” and Throw Out The Democratic Health Care Sponge
The Western Experience: British health care at its best!
NewsBusters: French Health Care Expert: France’s System Broken, Should Copy US; Media Yawn
Bulletproof Diction: The Honorable Sir Edward Moore Kennedy Amendment
Patterico’s Pontifications: The Tedward Lovefest: Candidate for Health Care Sainthood Has One Teensy, Weensy Little Blemish on His Health Care Record
The Anchoress, First Things: Ted Kennedy, Healthcare & Purgatory
The Xtremist: Ted Kennedy’s Ghost Will Be Spotted Asking For ObamaCare
Stickee Notes: Teddy’s “Death Panel” Van
The B.S. Report: Video Of The Day: Glenn Beck; AARP: Leading The Elderly To The Slaughter?
American Spectator: Honoring Teddy By Opposing Health Care
Telegraph: ‘Cruel and neglectful’ care of one million NHS patients exposed
Coloradoan.com: Markey: Medicare will take hit
Right Angles: Single-payer horror stories
Goodtimepolitics: 1,200 Veterans Falsely Told by VA They had Fatal Disease and Birth on pavement ‘after being refused ambulance’
Telegraph.co.uk: Sufferers pull out teeth due to lack of dentists
Track-A-’Crat: Another Health Care Victim
Ann Coulter, TownHall: Take Two Aspirin and Call Me When Your Cancer is Stage 4
Charles Krauthammer, National Review Online: Why Obamacare Is Sinking – You can’t fake health-care nirvana in legislation
Michelle Malkin: Oh, no: Here comes “Open Borders For Teddy” and The wretched excess begins and Inconvenient links of the week: Obama and the LaRouche poster and Video: No, you can’t just ram Obamacare through “fast” and Axelrod’s profits: Uh, who’s on the take from the drug lobby again?!?! and Barack Obama speaks the truth! Update: Mayo not okay-o with Obamacare and Undercover at an Obama health care meet-up
Gathering of Eagles: NY: They Will Use Any Wretched Event To Try To Pass Obamacare
Amused Cynic: Obama disses Urologists….Who you callin’ “wee-weed up,” Kemosabe?
Ztower: “I say toh-mah-toh, you say toh-may-toh, you say poh-tah-to, I say poh-tay-toh…let’s call the whole thing off!”
Gary Graham, Big Hollywood: Yes We Canadian! — The Public Option
QandO: Skeptical Americans Continue To Say No To Democratic Health Care Plan
Iowahawk, Big Hollywood: Wake Up, Mrs. Petrowski
Gerald Warner, Telegraph: Legal outsourced suicide for Britons would be a decline into Netherlands-style degeneracy
Vigilocanis (Watch Dog): Critical care breast cancer patients wait average of 34 days under Scotland’s government run system
American Thinker: Congress on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
VotingFemale Speaks!: Obama to Baby Boomers; Don’t Fear the Reaper – Death by ObamaCare Rationing and Obama-Pelosi Declare WAR; Demonizing Health Industry; Warning, Socialist Demons At Work
Lighthouse Patriot Journal: Govt Watch: “Change” For the Worse and No Marked Change in Politics as Usual
American Spectator: Imagine You Are a Doctor
Clinging to G & G: A few simple facts
Liberty’s Army: Betsy McCaughey: Government-Run Health Care’s Assault on Seniors
Hot Air Green Room: Obamacare would already be law, if not for you stupid Americans
Arlenearmy’s Blog: Will Doctors Bail Out?
Frugal Café Blog Zone: More Socialized Medicine Horror: Giving Birth in UK Hospitals Hazardous to New Mothers – Shortage of Beds, Thousands Give Birth in Bathrooms, Corridors and “War on Senior Citizens”: Mark Levin Interviews Dr. Betsy McCaughey on ObamaCare Details and Billions, Trillions, and More: CBO Releases Appalling Dollar Amount for Crappy ObamaCare and Dems’ Sheep-herding Health Welfare Program Like Eastern Bloc: Reckless Disregard for Economic & Fiscal Reality and Audience Cracks Up When MO Rep. Carnahan Claims ObamaCare Will Save Money: “If It’s So Good, Why Doesn’t Congress Have to Be on It?” (video)
The Hip Hop Republican: Quit Messing with Veterans Benefits
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[...] if not for you stupid Americans Arlenearmy’s Blog: Will Doctors Bail Out? Frugal Café Blog Zone: UK Health Care Scandal Breaking: Neglectful, Cruel Treatment of 1 Million Patients Reported and More Socialized Medicine Horror: Giving Birth in UK Hospitals Hazardous to New Mothers [...]
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