Sprightly pensioner dies in 'zoo' hospital after 'catalogue of blunders by staff'

Daily Mail UK ^ | July 6, 2009 | Graham Smith

[rightwingintelligentsia]

An active pensioner admitted to hospital for routine treatment for a stomach bug died six weeks later following a series of 'blunders' by overworked staff. Betty Dunn, 79, was taken to Tameside General Hospital in Ashton-under-Lyme, Greater Manchester, to be rehydrated with saline.

But her horrified family watched helplessly as the widow's condition deteriorated over six weeks before she died after contracting the superbug C-diff.

At one point her relatives, who battled to communicate with staff who apparently didn't speak English, were so concerned for the former Land Girl's welfare they called in police.

Doctors then transferred the great-grandmother to another hospital for 'rehabilitation', only to get her back when she was unable to sit up. She died three days later.

[hoosier hick]

Makes a good commercial for ObamaCare...

hh

[DustyMoment]

If (lack of) Obamacare is passed, this type of horror will be in our future.

[from occupied ga]

government health care working exactly as planned (well maybe not exactly, they took six weeks to let her die rather than the allocated five days)

[Truth29]

Under Obamacare, this will be a cost containment measure, but it would have to work faster...

[MrB]

Oh, the elite here in America will “do it right” because they are so much better than anyone who has tried it before.

Besides, we’re not implementing a FULL socialist healthcare system - just a “public option” to “compete” with the private sector.

The above is EXACTLY what you’ll get if you try to point out these failings to a sheep leftist.

Same “argument” occurs when you point out the failings of socialism in any application. The sheep say that “we’re not going that far, just a little bit of socialism is OK”.

The problem, of course, is that they CAN’T and WON’T stop at “a little bit of socialism”. (read “Road to Serfdom”)

[GiovannaNicoletta]

bookmark

[hoosier hick]

I always enjoy this lib argument. Bush was called arrogant, but our libs think they are smarter than every other liberal that implemented government healthcare.

The problem is: no matter where you start or how “smart” you are going in, the decision parameters and ultimate decisions are the same the world over. You cannot avoid achieving the same level of “care” as everyone else.

I took over an organzation, once, that was heading in the wrong direction by about 180 degrees (a technical group that promoted on “teamwork” not on technical skill— kind of like socialism). When I analyzed how they had arrived there over a 10 year period, I found it was a series of rather small decisions- each one moved them a degree or two further away from the path they should have been on. They didn’t even see how it happened, because each individual decision was made “for the right reasons.” Although it was stressfull and took 2 years, we got the group headed the right direction again, and it became the recognized technical leader it should have always been....

hh

[Eye of Unk]

Our healthcare program in America will revive a famous actor using state of the art CGI, Edward G. Robinson will be the spokesman for all senior citizens.

In other news a new protein supplement will soon be available called Soylent Green.

[GnuHere]

Staff in a hospital who can’t speak English (in England)? Gee, how could anything go wrong?

At least if a taxi driver can’t speak English, the worst scenario is getting lost, not dying.

[Seruzawa]

An active pensioner admitted to hospital for routine treatment for a stomach bug died six weeks later following a series of 'blunders' by overworked lazy incompetent uncaring staff.

Fixed it.

[squarebarb]

Thanks for that anecdote. Very interesting. Did they spend ten years breaking up into ‘study groups’?

It seems to be the fashionable thing to do.

[popdonnelly]

An excellent example of how government screws things up.

[EggsAckley]

Quote of the day:

“How can you expect someone who can’t speak good English to work in a life or death environment.”

[beaversmom]

I wouldn’t be surprised if they deliberately finished her off.

[allmendream]

Miomoto Musashi pointed out that a very small deviation from the true path in the beginning becomes a huge deviation as the journey continues.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Ugh. Poor lady. RIP.

[KeyLargo]

Good Wall Street editorial here:

* The Wall Street Journal

* REVIEW & OUTLOOK
* JULY 7, 2009

Of NICE and Men

Speaking to the American Medical Association last month, President Obama waxed enthusiastic about countries that “spend less” than the U.S. on health care. He’s right that many countries do, but what he doesn’t want to explain is how they ration care to do it.

Take the United Kingdom, which is often praised for spending as little as half as much per capita on health care as the U.S. Credit for this cost containment goes in large part to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or NICE. Americans should understand how NICE works because under ObamaCare it will eventually be coming to a hospital near you.

What NICE has become in practice is a rationing board. As health costs have exploded in Britain as in most developed countries, NICE has become the heavy that reduces spending by limiting the treatments that 61 million citizens are allowed to receive through the NHS. For example:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124692973435303415.html