A Look At Socialized Medicine Through The Eyes Of A British Oncologist

Now that health care reform is back in the news, let's look at what is happening in countires that already have socialized health care, or more accurately, rationed health care.

The best way to do that is to get the information straight from someone who works within such a system. In this case, we have Dr. Karol Sikora, a practicing oncologist and professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College School of Medicine in London.

Dr. Sikora writes:

One of the more unproductive elements of President Obama's stimulus bill is the $1.1 billion allotted for "comparative effectiveness research" to assess all new health treatments to determine whether they are cost-effective. It sounds great, but in Britain we have had a similar system since 1999, and it has cost lives and kept the country in a kind of medical time warp. As a practicing oncologist, I am forced to give patients older, cheaper medicines. The real cost of this penny-pinching is premature death for thousands of patients -- and higher overall health costs than if they had been treated properly: Sick people are expensive.

And dead family members exact a heavy price from the heart. I've previously posted about many of the horror stories that come out of countries with nationalized health care systems. Here are a few:

Another Example Of The Horrors That Socialized Medicine Will Bring Us
84rules
March 19, 2009

A Look At Three Socialized Health Care Systems: Dr. Walter Williams Column
84rules
March 4, 2009

Socialized Medicine: Enforcing Your Duty To Die
84rules
February 16, 2009

Clearly, there is a major problem with socialized health care systems. Now, some of you libs would respond that the same thing is happening here in the U.S. with our privatized system. I say that would be a misrepresentation. You see, if 400 patients died at a U.S. hospital that way they did at Britain's NHS run Stafford and Cannock Chase hospitals, it would be the lead story on CNN and other leftist leaning networks for at least two weeks. But CNN isn't running any such story. From this we can conclude that the problems of a socialized health care system have not manifested themselves in our privatized system.

Continuing on with Dr. Sikora's analysis:

As the government takes increasing control of the health sector with schemes such as Medicare and SCHIP (State Children's Health-care Insurance Program), it is under pressure to control expenditures. Some American health-policy experts have looked favorably at Britain, which uses its National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to appraise the cost-benefit of new treatments before they can be used in the public system. If NICE concludes that a new drug gives insufficient bang for the buck, it will not be available through our public National Health Service, which provides care for the majority of Britons. ... Partly as a result of these restrictions on new medicines, British patients die earlier. In Sweden, 60.3 percent of men and 61.7 percent of women survive a cancer diagnosis. In Britain the figure ranges between 40.2 to 48.1 percent for men and 48 to 54.1 percent for women.

And it is not only the restriction on new drugs that are having an effect. Delayed detection and delayed treatment also contribute the the low cancer survival rates in the U.K. These delays result from control of treatment procedures being passed from patient/doctor to some bureaucrats sitting in some air-conditioned office somewhere and none of whom have a medical degree.

Where do the bureaucrats get that control from? Read on:

Having a centralized "comparative effectiveness research" agency would also hand politicians inappropriate levels of control over clinical decisions, a fact which should alarm Americans as government takes ever more responsibility for delivering health care -- already 45 cents in every health-care dollar.

And would socialized medicine really mean universal coverage? No. It would mean rationed coverage with the most politically powerful ailments getting the most treatment:

In Britain, the reality is that life-and-death decisions are driven by electoral politics rather than clinical need. Diseases with less vocal lobby groups, such as strokes and mental health, get neglected at the expense of those that can shout louder. This is a principle that could soon be exported to America.

So, are you ready for the government to deny treatment to your pneumonia-suffering child because the gay lobby demanded that more resources go to treat (i.e. be rationed for) AIDS patients? Or are you ready to see your wife, mother or sister suffer from breast cancer because the government delayed the tests that could have detected the disease, delayed the treatments and denied the medicines that could have cured the disease?

If so, you are ready for socialized (rationed) medicine.

The majority of us do not want this to happen.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Karol Sikora: This Health Care 'Reform' Will Kill Thousands
Dr. Karol Sikora
New Hampshire Union Leader
May 12, 2009

Another Example Of The Horrors That Socialized Medicine Will Bring Us

Remember Baghdad Bob? He was the Iraqi government official who went on TV swearing up and down that there were no Americans in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War. As he was making this proclaimation, a U.S. Army M-2 Bradley fighting vehicle drove by in the background. It was one of the most hilarious moments in broadcast journalism.

Well, those who support socialized medicine are just like Baghdad Bob. They shout at the top of their lungs that a nationalized health care system is the best thing since sliced bread, and while they are beating their chests, a new story about the massive failings of socialized medicine goes to print.

Such is the latest story from the United Kingdom. Specifically, The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation which runs Stafford and Cannock Chase hospitals.

Jenny Hope, writing for the Daily Mail Online, notes the following:

Dehydrated patients were forced to drink out of flower vases, while others were left in soiled linen on filthy wards. Relatives of patients who died at Staffordshire General Hospital told how they were so worried by the standard of care they slept in chairs on the wards.

And other findings:

Receptionists carrying out initial checks on patients; Two clinical decision units - one unstaffed - used as 'dumping grounds' for A&E patients to avoid missing waiting targets; Nurses who turned off heart monitors because they didn't understand how to use them; Delayed operations, with some patients having surgery cancelled four days in a row and left without food, drink or medication; Vital equipment such as heart defibrilators was not working; A savings target of £10million met at the expense of 150 posts, including nurses.

Now, I know that many advocates of socialized medicine will say that these are isolated incidents or that the same things happen under a privatized health care system.

They are wrong on both points. These are not isolated incidents. You can read about a myriad of other deficiencies of socialized health care on-line at the following website:

The Truth About Socialized Medicine

And, if these incidents were as common in a privatized health care system, they would be the lead stories for CNN and MSNBC and front page news for the Washington Post and New York Times almost every day of the week. But they aren't stories here because under a privatized health care system these things don't happen on this scale or anywhere near this often.



As a new father myself, the story and picture of the baby is the most hard-hitting.

Here are some other stories about what has been happening in Staffordshire:

"My wife had treatment at this hospital and it was beyond belief. Staff tried to get my wife to believe she had already been given her tablets when they hadn't; later admitting they ran out and did not want to call out the Pharmacy! People were screaming for the toilet as their requests for assistance went unheeded." Mick, Stafford "My mother in law died at a hospital where her 'care' was almost non-existant. She died screaming in pain because nobody could be found to replace her morphine pump." Claire, Norfolk "When my father was in hospital for months, he lay in a bed with dirty, torn blankets and grubby sheets. I asked to see the Hospital Manager and was walked through the most plush of offices. I was sickened and told her so." Sammy, UK "My sister recently qualified as a nurse. During her training a fellow student commented to a manager that a doctor hadn't bothered to change his scrubs after undertaking a minor operation on a patient and wore the same ones for his next operation. She was warned any whistle blowing of that sort would result in her being kicked out." Jo, Middlesex

This is what awaits us here in the United States if we adopt socialized medicine.

We must ensure that health care decisions remain in the hands of the people who will be most affected by those decisions: the patients and their physicians.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Brown Apologises For Unacceptable Failings At Stafford 'Third World' Hospital
Jenny Hope
Daily Mail
March 19, 2009