Posted on 05/28/2011 7:23:58 PM PDT by John Semmens
Denial of treatment for those deemed “too old to invest in” isn’t the only hazard faced by those entrusted to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). Dehydration and starvation also take a toll. A recent study by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) indicated that dehydration contributes to 800 deaths and malnutrition to 300 deaths per year among those housed in NHS hospitals.
Spokesperson for the Hospital Workers Union, Mildred Ratched, placed the blame primarily on the doctors. “Our people are just following orders,” Ratched said. “If the doctors wanted these patients to have food and water they should have prescribed it.”
A secondary factor cited by Ms. Ratched was the patients themselves. “Even when we do bring food a lot of them don’t eat it,” she said. “How is that our fault?”
CQC criticized the NHS procedure of simply dumping off food while a patient was asleep and taking away the untouched meal a short while later while the patient was still asleep. Ratched defended the procedure as “part of our negotiated work rules. There has to be a schedule. If we have to accommodate different dining times for different patients we should get extra pay.”
Despite the problems with the NHS standards of care, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius insisted that “on balance, the NHS is a good system that provides a lot of useful guidance for us.”
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http://azconserv1.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/government-edges-closer-to-total-control-of-internet-with-anti-piracy-censorship-bill/
Another head shaker John. SHEESH! Good one.
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