"HeyBub" wrote in
m:
Bob Martin wrote:
in 1531437 20120701 182850 "HeyBub" wrote:
steve robinson wrote:
Seems people are "forgetting" that there appear to be mechanisms
to get the poor subscribed without taxing them.
Its worked in the UK for years called national insurance
Giggle.
I wouldn't say "it works" in the UK. We frequently see reports on
the ghastly consequences, so much that physicians actually prescribe
water for their hospitalized patients so they won't die of
dehydration!
Here's the biggest difference: In the U.S., virtually all health
care providers have a financial incentive to keep their patients
alive. If alive, they live to be treated another day.
In the UK, if a patient lives or dies, it's no biggie - the doctor,
nurse, or hospital janitor gets paid the same. A recent report
claimed that upwards of 130,000 people die each year in the UK from
non-treatment or poor treatment.
US media propaganda.
Not US media at all. A cursory check, or neutral question, would have
prevented a knee-jerk reaction on your part.
"[LONDON, June 21, 2012] An eminent British doctor told a meeting of
the Royal Society of Medicine in London that every year 130,000
elderly patients that die while under the care of the National Health
Service (NHS) have been effectively euthanized by being put on the
controversial Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), a protocol for care of the
terminally ill that he described as a "death pathway."
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/130...-killed-every-
year-by-death-pathway-top-uk-doctor/
And from a UK newspaper:
"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.
"[The Liverpool Care Pathway] is designed to come into force when
doctors believe it is impossible for a patient to recover and death is
imminent. It can include withdrawal of treatment - including the
provision of water and nourishment by tube - and on average brings a
patient to death in 33 hours."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...rs-chilling-cl
aim-The-NHS-kills-130-000-elderly-patients-year.html#ixzz1zT2ujcKn
To my knowledge, we in the U.S. have nothing like a physician writing
"LCP" on the patient's chart. ("DNR" is a completely different
critter.)
Everywhere it is really important that advance directives, living will
etc are in order, legally speaking. Plus the next of kin need to know
and be willing to execute the wishes of the patient. IMNSHO that is
paramount and should govern the actions of patients, next of kin,
doctors, hospitals, all to whom the care of the patient is entrusted.
However, there will always be situations where there is little if any
hope that medical science will be able to "resurrect" an elderly or
otherwise infirm individual to what I would call a quality life. Then
the question is whether such a "vegetable" should be articifially kept
alive in the sole sense of having a beating heart. It is of note that
being kept alive could be extremely painful, physically, mentally or
both, for the affected individual. The treatment-related questions then
are soul searching to the max. If and when one gets to the point of
having to make such decisions for others, he/she will (hopefully) lay
awake long hours trying to make the correct decisions.
I could relate several stories in this respect, but they are kind of
personal. One involves that an ambulance was called. "They needed" to
take the patient to the hospital for care, because the relevant paperwork
(living will, advance directives) couldn't be located. The patient might
have expired without the care. Some may contend that "living" weeks or
months longer at that point is something good, others that it isn't
really living. My point is that we should comply with the wishes of the
person involved, and not necesarily commit huge resources to keep someone
alive who might not wish that.
--
Best regards
Han
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