More Reasons Why We Do Not Want Socialized Medicine

My son was born in December of 2008. We had the plans made long beforehand. And since it was to be an induced labor, we already had the hospital, staff and emergency contingencies all lined up before we even left home that morning. For us, it was no more difficult than planning a vacation.

When I contrast that experience with what I read in the following news story, I thank God that my family and I live in America and not Great Britain.

From Jenny Hope and Nick McDermott of the UK Daily Mail:

Thousands of women are having to give birth outside maternity wards because of a lack of midwives and hospital beds. The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk as births in locations ranging from lifts to toilets - even a caravan - went up 15 per cent last year to almost 4,000. Health chiefs admit a lack of maternity beds is partly to blame for the crisis, with hundreds of women in labour being turned away from hospitals because they are full.

Again, I have to point out that if something like this ever happened in the United States, it would be the lead story on CNN and the front page story in the Washington Post and New York Times for at least a month.

While it is true that not all births occur in hospitals (babies have their own schedules regardless of what the parents planned), the fact that women in labor are being turned away by hospitals even though Great Britain's National Health Service promises timely care for all, is a scandal all unto itself.

More:

Additionally, overstretched maternity units shut their doors to any more women in labour on 553 occasions last year. Babies were born in offices, lifts, toilets and a caravan, according to the Freedom of Information data for 2007 and 2008 from 117 out of 147 trusts which provide maternity services. One woman gave birth in a lift while being transferred to a labour ward from A&E while another gave birth in a corridor, said East Cheshire NHS Trust. Others said women had to give birth on the wards - rather than in their own maternity room - because the delivery suites were full. Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley, who obtained the figures, said Labour had cut maternity beds by 2,340, or 22 per cent, since 1997. At the same time birth rates have been rising sharply - up 20 per cent in some areas.

Shut their doors to women in labor? Women giving birth in toilets?

Is that the utopia of socialized medicine that was promised to the British people?

I dare say it isn't. And I also say that I don't want such government-run travesties over here on this side of the pond.

Read on:

'It shows the incredible waste that has taken place that mothers are getting this sort of sub-standard treatment despite Gordon Brown's tripling of spending on the NHS.

They tripled spending and they still turn women in labor away from hospitals? Where did all that money go? Who accounts for it all?

Yet another reason why we absolutely do not want socialized medicine in the United States.

You can access the complete atory on-line here:

The Babies Born In Hospital Corridors: Bed Shortage Forces 4,000 Mothers To Give Birth In Lifts, Offices And Hospital Toilets
Jenny Hope and Nick McDermott
UK Daily Mail
August 26, 2009

And here is another horror story for good measure:

Father Turned Away From Hospital With Pregnant Wife Delivers Baby On Bathroom Floor - And Saves His Daughter's Life
UK Daily Mail
August 18, 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