Government-Run Hospitals in U.K. Sending Elderly Home Early With Disastrous Results
“Hospitals are discharging elderly patients to their homes without ensuring they are fit or have proper support, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has said in a new report.”
“The PHSO investigated 221 complaints relating to hospital discharge in 2014-15, an increase of over a third from the previous year, and upheld over half compared to 37% in the year before.”
[…]
“Julie Mellor, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said: […]
‘“Poor planning, co-ordination and communication between hospital staff and between health and social care services are failing patients, compromising their safety and dignity.”’
[…]
“The PHSO’s report contains shocking true-life cases, including a woman in her nineties who did not receive a medical examination and was sent home despite complaining of severe abdominal pain. When she was discharged, she collapsed and died in her granddaughter’s arms.”
[…]
“Janet Morrison, chief executive of charity Independent Age, said: “The individual cases highlighted by this report are tragic in their own right, but they are also a sign of a health service under severe strain. Higher bed occupancy rates means there is a greater pressure to get people out of the system quicker. And ever growing demand is increasing the pressure on already stretched hospitals.”
[…]
“The PHSO found that patients were being discharged before they were clinically ready to leave hospital, without being assessed or consulted, without a home care plan or without informing their family or carers.”
“For example, an 85-year-old woman who suffered from dementia was admitted to hospital after suffering from vaginal bleeding. After treatment, she was discharged in a dishevelled state with a cannula still in her arm and without informing her children.”
“Her daughter visited the next day and found her mother had been left with no food, drink or bedding and unable to visit the toilet.”
“However, in other cases patients were left in inappropriate care because it wasn’t possible to return them to their homes. One elderly men with vascular dementia and a personality disorder was locked on a psychiatric ward for over nine months without the hospital checking to see if this was a justified deprivation of liberty because the council decided he was ‘beyond social care’ and refused to fund a care home place for him.”
“The PHSO said improvements must be made to discharge best practice … involving patients, families and carers in the decision-making process, better co-ordination between health and social care services and ensuring community services maintain contact with the patient after they are discharged.”
“Anna Crossley, professional lead for acute, emergency and critical care at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), warned that such changes might not be possible because of current shortages of nurses …”
“Delayed care transfers, where medically fit patients have to remain in a hospital bed, have increased by 6% in the past year.”
Health services failing to prevent unsafe discharge of elderly patients – PHSO
11.05.16
*****
British Single Payer Surgeons Leave Gauze, Needles, Scissors Inside Patients at Alarming Rate
- “Daily Mail special report shows nightmare scenarios frequently happening”
- “They occur at least five times a week in NHS hospitals across Britain”
- “The most recent data from NHS England show that, in the past four years, nearly 1,200 patients in England have been the victims of such incidents”
“Leaving hospital after prostate cancer surgery, Frank Hibbard and his family felt a sense of relief that the worst was behind him. “
“Frank, then 56, had been told the operation should rid him of the cancer, which was contained within the prostate gland.”
[…]
However, “surgeons had accidentally left an 8 cm-long piece of gauze inside his pelvis. It led to a type of soft tissue cancer called angiosarcoma that was so advanced by the time it was diagnosed in March 2014, nothing could be done.”
“Frank died two years ago at the age of just 69.”
“If this was an isolated case, it might be easy to dismiss it as a tragic, but rare error. But these kinds of serious medical blunders […] occur on average at least five times a week in NHS hospitals across Britain.”
“The most recent data from NHS England show that, in the past four years, nearly 1,200 patients in England have been the victims of such incidents.”
“The most serious include a man who needed a cyst removed, but woke up to find surgeons had instead cut off a testicle, and a woman with a diseased ovary who lost a healthy kidney instead because blundering surgeons had not read her notes properly.”
“Other calamities included the wrong implants being used, doctors over-prescribing powerful drugs and frail hospital patients falling out of poorly secured windows.”
“But it’s cases of surgical equipment being left inside patients that may cause most alarm — not least because they seem avoidable. In Frank’s case, the hospital didn’t just leave the swab inside him — they also missed repeated chances to spot their mistake.”
“Twice in the following few years after his surgery Frank had scans — the first in 2003 before radiotherapy to treat a return of his cancer and then in 2004 when he needed hernia surgery.”
“Both times doctors failed to detect the melon-sized mass that had formed next to his rectum as scar tissue formed round the swab, despite the mass being visible on his CT scan.”
[…]
“Finally, after a CT scan in March 2014, doctors realised he had an enormous mass in his abdomen. The plan was to remove it but in the following weeks Frank developed severe rectal bleeding […] and his health deteriorated rapidly.”
“Tests revealed he had advanced angiosarcoma, a fast-growing and aggressive cancer in the inner lining of the blood vessels. Within four months, Frank, a grandfather of six, had died.”
[…]
“The coroner’s report concluded the swab ‘materially contributed’ to the development of the cancer: ‘Several agents are known to predispose formation of angiosarcoma including a surgical sponge or gauze retained for a prolonged period in a body cavity’.”
[…]
“Around a third of ‘never events’ [serious medical blunders] occur when doctors and theatre nurses leave swabs, sponges or even surgical instruments inside patients during operations — drill bits, scalpel blades, needles and scissors have been discovered months, or even years, later.”
“Never events are not a new phenomenon and there have been concerted efforts to tackle the problem.”
[…]
“Last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reported that Britain has one of the highest reported levels in the industrialised world for leaving surgical items inside patients.”
[…]
“But the charity Action Against Medical Accidents says there’s little sign of progress. ‘There is no good evidence of a dramatic improvement and it is really concerning that there has not been a discernible drop in these incidents,’ says Peter Walsh, the charity’s chief executive.”
“Furthermore, he adds, ‘the NHS has been saying for years there is massive under-reporting of them.’”
“‘Every single one is avoidable and we want to know what’s going to be done about those hospitals that are not reporting them.’”
“The key to preventing such never events is using a surgical checklist …”
[…]
“‘Whether you’re a surgeon in London or Devon, the way you work and use a surgical safety checklist should be the same,’ he says.”
“‘At the moment, there is a marked variation and it’s a big problem.’”
“For example, surgeons are meant to visit each patient before operating on them and personally mark the surgical site using a specially provided marker pen containing ink that cannot be rubbed off easily.”
“But research by the CHFG suggests that in some busy theatres, ordinary biros (ink pens) are used if the marker can’t be found. This can rub off, paving the way for wrong site surgery.”
[…]
“Leslie Hamilton, a retired cardiothoracic surgeon and a spokesman, explains: ‘Mistakes happen — it’s human nature. But if the proper checks are done these events are preventable.’”
“But as Frank Hibbard’s case shows, this system is not foolproof. ‘It should be a simple case of counting swabs in and out again,’ says Renu Daly, a medical negligence specialist at Hudgell Solicitors acting on the family’s behalf. Luton and Dunstable Hospital told Good Health it was one of the first hospitals in Britain to use the checklist.”
[…]
“The number of never events may be far higher than reported as some serious incidents are recorded differently. “
“Elise Cattle, 27, a part-time nursery nurse from Hull, suffered five months of pain and infections before discovering it was due to gauze left in her after the birth of her son Freddie in August 2012 at Hull’s Women and Children’s Hospital.”
“She’d torn badly during the birth and bled heavily — midwives used packing to stem the flow, but later failed to remove it all.”
[…]
“The experience has had a lasting effect on Elaine. ‘I would like more children, but I still feel mentally scarred by what I’ve gone through,’ she says.”
[…]
GOING UNDER THE KNIFE? HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF…
[…]
The (frighteningly common) medical horror stories: Patients left with needles, swabs and even razor-sharp SCISSORS inside them after surgery
By PAT HAGAN FOR MAILONLINE
Wednesday, Jun 22nd 2016
*****
British NHS Euthanizes 130,000 Patients Per Year
Comment: Euthanasia in England – Far-left advocates of socialized medicine are still running cover for Britain’s National Health Service after top physician Patrick Pullicino admitted that the U.K.’s government-run medical system “euthanizes” as many as 130,000 patients every year. The respected neurologist and university professor told the Royal Society of Medicine in London that an end-of-life care method known as the “Liverpool Care Pathway” (LCP) used in British hospitals had actually become an “assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway.” Shortly after the news exploded into the global headlines, the opening ceremony for the Olympics in London was dedicated almost entirely to what critics called pro-NHS propaganda. It featured sick children being saved from demon-like characters by “heroic” NHS workers in an esoteric spectacle that attracted global criticism from across the political spectrum. Analysts say Obamacare will mean a similar fate for American medicine: rationing, euthanasia, long lines, and death.
“Professor Patrick Pullicino said doctors had turned the use of a controversial ‘death pathway’ into the equivalent of euthanasia of the elderly.”
“He claimed there was often a lack of clear evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway…”
“It is designed to come into force when doctors believe it is impossible for a patient to recover and death is imminent.”
“There are around 450,000 deaths in Britain each year of people who are in hospital or under NHS care. Around 29 per cent – 130,000 – are of patients who were on the LCP…”
“Professor Pullicino revealed he had personally intervened to take a patient off the LCP who went on to be successfully treated.”
“‘Very likely many elderly patients who could live substantially longer are being killed by the LCP. ‘”
“The LCP was developed in the North West during the 1990s and recommended to hospitals by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in 2
“…Experts…, warned of ‘backdoor euthanasia’ and the risk that economic factors were being brought into the treatment of vulnerable patients.”
Top doctor’s chilling claim: The NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year
June 19, 2012
By STEVE DOUGHTY FOR THE DAILY MAIL
*****
Single-Payer Worship Causes 9,000 Needless Deaths a Year in U.K.
Comment: With 64 million people, the United Kingdom has 1/5th the population of the United States (318 million). 9,000 deaths in their population corresponds to five times as many–45,000 excess annual deaths–in a population as large as the U.S.A.’s. Question: Would 45,000 annual deaths from single-payer be acceptable in the U.S.?
“He found that cancer survival rates were lower in the UK than elsewhere, with British patients suffering from breast, cervical and colorectal cancer less likely to survive than their counterparts in Germany and the Netherlands.”
“British sufferers of a stroke were also less likely to survive than German, Dutch or Swiss stroke patients, and clinical quality and safety is lower on the NHS than in Germany or Switzerland, with the result that there were more post-operative complications in Britain than in those countries.”
“But perhaps most damning were the numbers of needless deaths: as many as 9,000 people are thought to have died each year who wouldn’t have done had they been treated in Germany.”
Revealed: the 9,000 Deaths A Year Caused by Our Politicians Worshipping at the Altar of the NHS
by Donna Rachel Edmunds 6 Apr 2015
*****
UK Hospital Covers Up Baby Deaths
“More than 30 families have taken legal action against a hospital in north-west England for a catalogue of baby and maternal deaths and injuries.”
“They blame poor care and medical negligence at Furness General Hospital…”
“Parents also allege that important reports were suppressed…”
[…]
[…]
“Since June 2011, a team of 15 detectives have been investigating a number of deaths at the hospital.”
“…police are looking into the possibility of bringing corporate manslaughter charges against the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation NHS Trust.”
“James Titcombe, a nuclear engineer living near Barrow-in-Furness, told the BBC how he watched his son Joshua die at just nine days old in November 2008.”
[…]
“The coroner heard that midwives and medical staff made 10 serious errors that contributed to Joshua’s death…”
[…]
[…]
‘”…At no stage was a doctor ever called.”’
[…]
“To make matters worse, Joshua’s progress chart went missing, never to re-emerge and the coroner later said there was a suspicion that it may have been deliberately destroyed.”
[…]
‘The Care Quality Commission (CQC) stands accused of hindering an investigation into parents’ concerns, as well as allowing the trust to get foundation status despite allegations about the standards of the maternity services.”
“The Health Ombudsman is investigating allegations of poor supervision by the North West Strategic Health Authority.”
“One of the most serious allegations against the trust is that it suppressed the damning findings of an internal inquiry into maternity services…”
“The report described the team working as “dysfunctional in some parts of the maternity services” and that consultants were preoccupied with their own agendas possessing “little confidence in the clinical leadership” while the management had failed to “establish a common culture… within which good practice could flourish”’
“In February 2012, a separate report…also criticised managers.”
“…PricewaterhouseCoopers said the trust lacked a “risk management culture”…”
“Dr John Ashton, currently director of public health for Cumbria, told the BBC that he had concerns about the management of the trust for some years.”
[…]
[…]
[…]
“Of the 37 cases of litigation, 23 were started in the past two years. These 23 cases involve nine baby deaths and eight cases of cerebral palsy. Since 2002, the legal cases have involved the deaths of 14 babies and two mothers.”
[…]
“John Cowdall, trust chairman, said: “There is no denying that the trust has let women and their families down in the past and there are things that should have been done differently.”
[…]
[…]
[…]
Legal action over Furness General Hospital deaths
By Andrew Hosken BBC News
15 March 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-21798726
*****
Britain’s Government Care, Canceling Surgeries
Comment: Canceling operations for cancer patients. Chaos in emergency rooms. Government “takes social care away from older people and makes it harder to see a GP.” “Operation waiting lists.” It’s “not working.”
We couldn’t have said it better.
Shafi Ahmed said:
“As a practising surgeon, looking after cancer patients, it is very difficult to have to tell a patient who has prepared themselves for a major procedure that their operation has been cancelled for non-clinical reasons.”
“[...]the NHS is simply not working.”
Labour’s shadow health secretary Andy Burnham:
“Standards of patient care are slipping by the week and now more and more people get ready for an operation only to face a last minute postponement.”
“The chaos in A&E [emergency rooms] is spreading through the NHS. Hospitals are in danger of becoming overwhelmed as the Government takes social care away from older people and makes it harder to see a GP. These cancellations help to explain why operation waiting lists are at a six-year high.”
3,000 ops cancelled as demand rises
Press Association, Dec. 28, 2014
*****
UK’s NHS — Little Sam’s Story (warning–very sad)
Comment: Medical neglect, blunder after blunder, a precious child is lost, two years’ investigation, no one cares, and no one’s responsible. Welcome to government-run medicine.
“A damning investigation has found that a three-year old boy died after systemic and catastrophic failings by Britain’s out-of-hours NHS services.”
“Sam Morrish was vomiting what appeared to be blood when staff at NHS Direct gave the case low priority and wrongly recorded crucial information provided by his parents.”
“When they failed to help, his desperate mother contacted the local GP out-of-hours service, where an unqualified call handler wrongly informed her that a nearby “treatment centre” would be able to help, when in fact he should have been sent immediately to Accident and Emergency.”
“An investigation by the Health Service Ombudsman is this week expected to lay bare a catalogue of failings in the treatment of the child, who died from an infection which was treated too late.”
“Last month Dr Sarah Wollaston, now chairman of the Commons health select committee, questioned Dame Julie Mellor, the Ombudsman, about why her investigation into Sam’s death has taken more than two years.” [1]
More:
“Sam Morrish had the kind of mischievous smile that could light up a room and an infectious energy that would rub off on everyone present.”
[...] “But the mishandling of Sam’s case was now compounded by a series of further mistakes.”
“The nurse recorded wrongly on the computer system Mrs Morrish’s information about the boy’s condition. Furthermore the call was recorded as routine rather than as the emergency it clearly was.”
“Increasingly anxious Mrs Morrish contacted the out-of-hours GP service, Devon Doctors, later that evening. Instead of recommending she take Sam to her nearest hospital’s Accident and Emergency department, she was instead told to go to the local treatment centre in Newton Abbott.”
[...] “Things got even worse at the treatment centre. Instead of seeing a doctor straight away the family were placed in a queue behind three other patients.”
“Growing increasingly frightened Mrs Morrish asked a passing nurse to help. On taking one look at the child, by now seriously ill, the nurse raised the alarm and Sam was rushed by ambulance the five miles to Torbay Hospital, run by South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in Torquay.”
“Here Mr and Mrs Morrish thought he would finally get the treatment he needed, but, astonishingly, he was not given the antibiotics he needed until three hours after they had been prescribed.” [2]
___________
[1] NHS Direct ‘failed dying three year-old’
[2] Three-year-old’s death ‘crushed our faith in NHS’
*****
Grandmother at U.K. Health Center Forced to Call Own Ambulance
– Government Employees Refuse to Make Call For Stricken Woman–
Comment: <sarcasm>Isn’t single-payer grand?</sarcasm> A 2014 study proclaimed Britain’s the best healthcare system in the world. Really?
“A FAMILY have hit out after claiming a grandmother was left to call for her own ambulance as she suffered a heart attack.”
“Loved ones of Hannah Barnes say the 58-year-old was forced to frantically search for her mobile phone at the bottom of her bag and call for an ambulance from outside the walk-in centre at Jarrow’s Palmer Community Hospital after reception staff turned her away as she begged for help.”
Walk-in centre refused to call ambulance for heart-attack gran
June 13, 2014
*****
U.K. Single-Payer Nightmare: Desperate Man Amputates Own Hand
Comment: 16 years of inhuman suffering, ignored by his country’s system, drove this man to desperate measures. Equally tragic, even his desperate measures didn’t bring him relief. Is this what you want America?
“A man tried to end years of pain from an old road accident by chopping off his own hand – with a homemade guillotine.”
“Desperate Mark Goddard, 44, says he performed the gruesome DIY operation when doctors refused to amputate the limb.”
Newton Abbot man chopped off his hand with homemade guillotine to ‘reduce pain’
Western Morning News | Posted: March 28, 2014
*****
Fetal Remains Incinerated With the Trash in UK Hospitals
“British health officials are responding to a news program’s report that accuses some hospitals of incinerating aborted and miscarried fetuses, in some cases as part of a system for heating the facilities….”
“…10 National Health Service (NHS) hospital trusts have admitted burning the remains as “clinical waste” alongside trash, while two other facilities disposed of the remains in incinerators that generate power for heating…”
“Reports said that in the past two years alone, at least 15,500 fetal remains were incinerated by 27 NHS trusts…”
[…]
“…Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, was said to have incinerated more than 1,100 fetal remains between 2011 and 2013 in a “waste to energy” plant operated by a private contractor….”
[…]
“Addenbrooke Hospital in Cambridge was also cited for incinerating 797 fetuses at its “waste to energy” plant.”
“Health minister Dr. Dan Poulter told the BBC the practice was “totally unacceptable.””
“”That is why I have asked Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, to write to all NHS hospital trusts, to make it clear that it must stop now,” he said.”
[…]
UK Hospitals Accused of Incinerating Aborted Fetuses Alongside Trash
By RYAN JASLOW CBS NEWS March 25, 2014
*****
Bureaucrats Dispense Medicine with Billy Clubs, Not Stethoscopes
- The British “National Health Service” (NHS), the government-run medical system forced on the U.K., is “worse than Communist China,” according to doctors at the British Medical Association’s annual conference. Among the biggest problems with the socialized-medicine system, the coalition of medics said, was how it allows bureaucrats to over-rule doctors’ medical decisions. BMA negotiating committee member Dr. Peter Holden said the lack of oversight and regulation allowed managers to operate in secrecy, bully doctors, and cover it all up. “The result is the perfect toxic professional working environment for this explosive mixture to generate disasters such as Mid Staffordshire which did so much harm to patients,” he was quoted as saying by the U.K. Telegraph [see story on Mid Staffordshire elsewhere this page]. “Not even in Communist China did they have managers overruling doctors in the operation of hospitals and health services.”
*****
‘Neurotic Mum’ Watches Son Die in Agony After Health Service Refuses Help
“A schoolboy tearfully begged doctors to help him hours before he died from meningitis, a conduct hearing has been told. Ten-year-old William Cressey pleaded with them: ‘Please help me. Why won’t you help me? If you don’t help me, I am going to die. Please help me, I don’t want to die.’” William was prescribed Calpol and sent home from hospital because doctors thought he was suffering from a migraine,” his mother said.”
“Hours later Cheryl Cressey took him back to the ward but he suffered a fit and died later that day. Mrs Cressey said she repeatedly alerted doctors and nurses to her son’s deteriorating condition, but was dismissed as a ‘neurotic mum’.”
“Christopher Kirby, one of the nurses in charge of looking after him, is appearing before the Nursing and Midwifery Council in central London. He admits failing to carry out proper observations on William and record keeping errors. But he denies walking away when a colleague asked him for help with the boy.”
[…]
“…She said her son lay on the bed writhing in agony and vomiting but doctors refused to accept that he had meningitis because he did not have a rash….she repeatedly told doctors that she suspected meningitis but each time was ignored.”
‘I’m going to die, please help me’: Tragic plea of ten-year-old meningitis boy given Calpol and sent home from hospital
Daily Mail Reporter
April 4, 2013
*****
NHS’ broken, more like busted, system funds model’s chest enhancement, yet denies funding and care for child with cancer
“An aspiring model was able to get a state funded breast job because she was emotionally distressed, while the NHS (National Health Service) refused to fund treatment for a child with cancer.”
“…Josie Cunnigham, from Leeds, UK, became the talk of the town when news broke out that she was able to get breast implants courtesy of the UK’s state fund health service. The grounds for receiving the procedure was that she was emotionally distressed.”
“Cunnigham is also an aspiring model and she said that she was experiencing depression due to her being flat chested. She also said that her new boobs have changed her life…”
“Meanwhile the parents of Lilly Macglashan have had to raise more than a million dollars for pioneering treatment in the United States, because the NHS refused to fund it.”
“Medical experts in the UK said that Lilly, who is three, could not be saved after she was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the nervous system. However, the girl’s parents, John and Dawn, found a clinic located in New York that could help her by providing her with an experimental drug, but the NHS ended up not paying for it.”
“John said that Cunnigham’s case highlights the unfairness within the NHS. He said that it seems wrong that kids like his daughter have to fight, while Cunnigham was able to receive breast implants worth thousands. John also said that they are still trying to get the NHS to help them, but so far the NHS has done nothing. John said that it was, and is, the British public that has helped save his daughter’s life, not the NHS.”
[…]
NHS pays for breast implants, while kid with cancer goes without
Owen Weldon
March 26, 2013
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/346566
*****
NHS takes ‘sick bed’ to a new level as cash-strapped trusts re-use dirty sheets
“Cleaners at an NHS hospital with a poor record on superbugs have been told to turn over dirty sheets instead of using fresh ones between patients to save money.”
“Housekeeping staff at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, have been asked to re-use sheets and pillowcases wherever possible to cut a £500,000 laundry bill….Good Hope reported a deficit of £6million last year and was subject to a report by the Audit Commission because of its poor financial standing.”
“It recorded 36 cases of MRSA from April last year to January, while cases of clostridium difficile have more than doubled in less than a year to 327. A Government hit squad was drafted in to solve the infection problems last year but the trust is still failing to hit MRSA targets.”
Tony Field, chairman of Birmingham-based MRSA Support, said: ‘Is that all the safety of a patient’s life is worth? 0.275 pence? ‘It is utterly disgraceful and tantamount to murder because hygiene like changing sheets is essential to protect patients.’”
[…]
“The scheme is one of many ways that cash- strapped trusts are trying to save money. In January, staff at West Hertfordshire NHS Trust were amazed to receive a memo urging them to save £2.50 a day by prescribing cheaper medicines, reducing the number of sterile packs used, cutting hospital tests and asking patients to bring drugs in from home.”
[…]
Hard-up hospital orders staff: Don’t wash sheets – turn them over
Daniel Martin
April 13, 2007
*****
Hospital refuses ambulance, causing mother to give birth on sidewalk outside of hospital
Comment: A hallmark story of universal healthcare… Why would we want to go there???
“…Mother-of-three Carmen Blake called her midwife to ask for an ambulance when she went into labour unexpectedly with her fourth child. But the 27-year-old claims she was refused an ambulance and told to walk the 100m from her house in Leicester to the city’s nearby Royal Infirmary.”
[...]
“‘They said they were not sending an ambulance and told me I had had nine months to sort out a lift.’”
[...]
“Today a spokeswoman for the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said: ‘We are disappointed that Ms Blake was not happy with the advice and care she received and will of course investigate any complaint.”
Woman gives birth on pavement ‘after being refused ambulance’
Daily Mail Reporter
August 17, 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1207151/Woman-gives-birth-pavement-refused-ambulance.html
*****
Four Cancelled Surgeries Leaves British Man Grotesquely Disfigured and Unable to Work
“Mr Eeles fractured his arm on December 3 and was rushed straight to casualty where doctors put his arm in plaster. But within a few weeks a specialist said the bones were too far apart and that surgeons would have to insert a metal plate because there was too much movement in the arm.”
“Mr Eeles claims his first two operations at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, were cancelled due to a lack of beds and operating time respectively. His third operation in February was postponed after he was found to have high blood pressure, while the fourth, scheduled for May, was abandoned because of concerns about his smoking.”
“Mr. Eeles, 50, has been left unable to work since falling down the stairs… He said: ‘This whole situation is absolutely disgusting. I have never heard of anyone else having a broken arm for ten months. It’s been so long the bones have knitted back together….Now I’m worried about losing my house. I’ve got a mortgage on it and there are credit cards debts I’m struggling to pay because I can’t work.’”
“Nick Carver, the chief executive of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, insisted computer records showed the trust had only cancelled two operations ….”
“Plumber with shattered arm left horrifically bent out of shape has operation ‘cancelled four times’”
Daily Mail Reporter (No Name)
October 8, 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218927/Plumber-shattered-arm-left-horrifically-bent-shape-operation-cancelled-times.html#ixzz0TMFn8yTp
*****
4 Years and 1,200 Patient Deaths Later –Mid Staffordshire Is Finally Being Scrutinized
“…the long-awaited report… will say sweeping reforms of how hospitals are policed are needed to stop a repeat of events at Stafford hospital, where an estimated 400-1,200 patients died between 2005 and 2009 as a result of “appalling” care and neglect.”
“…food and drink was left out of their reach, misdiagnosis of medical problems was common, pain-relieving drugs were not given or given late, and hygiene was so poor that relatives had to clean toilets themselves…”
“…the hospital trust cut staff… and neglected quality of care as it sought to balance its books…”
Hospitals face new army of inspectors in wake of Mid Staffordshire scandal
Denis Campbell
January 30, 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/30/report-hospitals-regulation-mid-staffordshire
*****
Left-Wing Legislator Shocked to Discover True Nature of Government-Run Medicine: “Coldness, Resentment, Indifference and Even Contempt”
Comment: To the left in Britain, hoisted with your own petard, imagine that. You asked for this mess – how do you like it now? To the Democrats and other leftists in America who think they want single-payer: Open your eyes – your leaders are conning you. You WILL get a dose of your own medicine. Careful what you wish for….
“Ann Clwyd broke down as she spoke about the final moments of Owen Roberts, who contracted pneumonia after being admitted….She said her husband was squashed against the side of his bed, his lips dry, and cold from a fan that had been turned on for a patient in an adjacent bay.”
“She painted a picture of nurses who treated her husband with “coldness, resentment, indifference and even contempt” – echoing the words of the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt last week.”
“Ms Clwyd, the Labour MP for Cynon Valley since 1984 and Tony Blair’s former human rights envoy to Iraq, said she had chosen to speak out because such treatment had become “too commonplace”.”
“Nobody, nobody should have to die in conditions like I saw my husband die in,” she said during a radio interview. Her comments came amid calls from the head of nursing in England for compassion to be placed at the centre of the profession, following a series of reports of NHS staff treating patients poorly.”
“He didn’t have any clothes over him. He was half-covered by two very thin, inadequate sheets, his feet were sticking out of the bed at an angle,” she told BBC Radio 4′s World at One. “It was extremely cold and I tried to cover him with a towel. He was very distressed, totally aware of his situation. Although unable to speak because of the oxygen mask he let us know he was cold and that he wanted to come home.”
“I stopped one nurse in the corridor and asked why he was not in intensive care, and she said ‘there are lots of people worse than him’ and she walked on. I’d previously stopped another nurse, and asked when a doctor had last seen him, and I was just brushed aside and told a doctor had been to the floor but had not seen my husband but she said ‘we know what to do’.”
Ruth Walker, executive nurse director at the hospital, invited Ms Clwyd to meet hospital officials so that a “full and formal investigation” could take place.
Senior MP Ann Clwyd says her husband ‘died like a battery hen’ in hospital
John-Paul Ford Rojas
December 04, 2012
*****
British Patients Denied Life-Extending Cancer Drugs and Other Medications
Comment: Open your eyes. Is this a healthcare system or a central planner’s playground?
“Hospitals are denying patients the latest life-extending cancer drugs, a report reveals. Dozens of trusts are failing to hand out treatments for bowel, ovarian, lung and brain cancer that have been approved by the NHS watchdog NICE.”
“The report – commissioned by the Department of Health – also reveals that many hospitals are failing to prescribe the latest treatments for heart attacks, asthma, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and Crohn’s Disease….The report also reveals huge variation between hospitals with some routinely prescribing these new treatments while others have not offered them to anyone at all.”
“The report – published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre – shows how frequently treatments approved by NICE are being prescribed by hospitals and GPs….it reveals that one drug for advanced bowel cancer is not being used by at least 25 hospital trusts – even though it was approved by NICE in 2006. And at least 24 trusts are not giving women with advanced ovarian cancer the drug Paclitaxel, even though it could extend their lives by an extra year. Another 15 trusts are refusing to give lung cancer patients Erlonitib – approved by NICE in 2008 – which halts the progression of tumours for more than a year.”
Life-extending cancer drugs ‘rationed by postcode’: Dozens of hospitals refuse to hand out treaments
Sophie Borland
January 10, 2013
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2260506/Latest-life-extending-cancer-drugs-rationed-postcode-Recommended-treatments-handed-hospitals-others.html
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One Million British Patients Are Victims of Cruel and Neglectful’ Care
Comment: Are you sure this is what you want for America?
““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.”
“Katherine Murphy, Director of the Patients Association, said “…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.”
“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.”
‘Cruel and neglectful’ care of one million NHS patients exposed
Rebecca Smith
August 27, 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6092658/Cruel-and-neglectful-care-of-one-million-NHS-patients-exposed.html
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British System Rations Operations
Comment: Doctors in government-run medical systems look out for the financial interests of the state, not the dignity of the individual. Here’s a clear example -
“NHS hospitals are rationing the number of operations they perform to balance their budgets. Nine out of 10 Trusts admit that they are restricting the number of procedures they perform to save money…The widespread problem was revealed after a freedom of information request revealed 90 per cent of trusts had restricted GP referrals for a number of procedures.”
“Limits on cataract surgery have been ordered in two-thirds of trusts, while six in 10 restricted weight-loss surgery and hip and knee operations.”
“… Kent GP Dr Julian Spinks told GP Magazine: ‘They’re introducing waiting lists by the back door. ‘People are not getting treatment or having to wait until they get worse, but the government and the NHS can say they’re meeting targets.’”
Nine out of 10 NHS Trusts are ‘rationing operations’
Claire Bates
June 19, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2161489/Nine-10-NHS-Trusts-rationing-operations.html
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British System Kills 130,000 Elderly Patients Every Year
Comment: Government-run healthcare systems invariably end up shockingly inhumane. If you’re not shocked by this story, there’s something wrong with the way you think.
“NHS doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage or to free up beds, a senior consultant claimed yesterday.“
“Professor Patrick Pullicino said doctors had turned the use of a controversial ‘death pathway’ into the equivalent of euthanasia of the elderly.”
“He claimed there was often a lack of clear evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway, a method of looking after terminally ill patients that is used in hospitals across the country.”
“There are around 450,000 deaths in Britain each year of people who are in hospital or under NHS care. Around 29 per cent – 130,000 – are of patients who were on the LCP [Liverpool Care Pathway].
“Professor Pullicino revealed he had personally intervened to take a patient off the LCP who went on to be successfully treated.”
“He said: “The lack of evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway makes it an assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway. Very likely many elderly patients who could live substantially longer are being killed by the LCP.””
Top doctor’s chilling claim: The NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year
Steve Doughty
June 19, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161869/Top-doctors-chilling-claim-The-NHS-kills-130-000-elderly-patients-year.html#ixzz1yK7gbr7D