Huge rise in superbugs deaths (UK Socialised Medicine Alert!)

The Evening Standard ^ | 13 Dec 2002 | Colin Adamson

[UKCajun]

As an American living and working in the U.K., I can truly say the hospitals here compared to home are truly archaic and FILTHY. Socialised medicine is a fiasco and a scandal.

God bless American doctors, nurses, and hospital staff!

Question: What is the most famous British w(h)ine? Answer: It's Not Fair!!!

[SpinyNorman]

Socialized medicine: the new black plague?

Let's call this the Hillary syndrome: the inability to come clean when circumstances demand it.

[SpinyNorman]

Socialized medicine: the new black plague?

Let's call this the Hillary syndrome: the inability to come clean when circumstances demand it.

[KevinDavis]

I think someone should put up a website detialing how socialsed medicine really work. Bascially telling the truth.

[mewzilla]

Well, let's not get cocky. I know some folks right here in the US who contracted a multiple drug resistant infection while in the hospital. I know others who contracted some other less serious bugs. Good handwashing procedures don't cost a lot of money to carry out. Just discipline. That would help a lot.

[friendly]

The bad, bad bugs are most assuredly here in the USA, also: Deadly and utterly immune to all anti-biotics. One of my patients died from one several weeks ago.

As for the UK, new hospital building by and large ceased after 1948 when the system was socialized. It is like some kind of time capsule over there with Victorian era open wards in filth.

Same thing in Canada, hardly anything built after 1975, when the socialists "cured" heathcare. Like looking at 1957 cars driving around Havana.

[mewzilla]

I've had my hair curled on more than one occasion by watching medical personnel in the ladies room at a hospital taking less time and care to handwash than I do. Unbelievable. And that can't be blamed on socialized medicine. Lots of other things, yes. But not bad hygiene. For that there's no reason or excuse.

[friendly]

People who do not wash their hands in hospitals will only give themselves anti-biotic immune bacteria. Nature's way of pruning?

[mewzilla]

You don't even need antibacterial soap, or so I've been told. Thorough handwashing with plain old soap will do the job nicely. And if the staff wants to give themselves the Bug That Ate MY Face (I remember that British tab headline), that's one thing. But when their laxness affects their patients, as it surely will, that's something else entirely.

[valkyrieanne]

Socialized medicine kills ... and we do have socialized medicine in the US, too (i.e. medicare, medicaid, free care for illegal immigrants, etc.)

[Vic3O3]

Hey, the US med system MAY be better than that in the UK, but it is still the 8th leading cause of DEATH in the USA, according to a report on the news yesterday.

[litehaus]

Son, who lives and works there, says same thing. Dreads the day he might end up in "The System." For now he has had good luck with company people telling him where to find good PRIVATE doctors........

[UKCajun]

"It is like some kind of time capsule over there with Victorian era open wards in filth."

You are so correct--Victorian era filth still around; open waste bins in corridors; blood on floors; blood stains on ceilings, walls; mud on floors, etc. My solution to the facilities is: 1) Stinger missiles followed by 2) Wrecking ball 3) If building is to be kept, complete gutting followed with chlorine dioxide.

[CJ Wolf]

It is likly that the antibodic hand washing that does go on enhances the resistance of the bacteria. If it's resistant to methicillin what makes you think hand washing will kill it. I think it's an easy scape goat for something they don't understand.

[UKCajun]

Fine until he needs emergency care. Lawyer friend of mine nearly bled to death in ER from a simple slip and fall cut on his forehead.

[FreedomFlyer]

We have socialized medicine--the VA hospitals. They are terrific, aren't they?

[fogarty]

Unfortunately, the US is not immune to MRSA. In fact, in a US hospital this past summer, vancomycin resistance emerged in staph. Which means if that particular strain also picks up resistance to the methicillin family, we are back to the 1940's as far as infection protocols go after surgery.

No, cockiness and arrogance is what led to the US CDC declaring only 30 years ago that the age of communicable diseases was finished.

How foolish we were. You want to see statistics - take a look at the Tuberculosis cases in the United States that are resistant to virtually every class of antibiotics available.

This is a global war alright. And the microbes are winning. We've won exactly one game in this battle, that being smallpox.

[Cicero]

Political correctness is part of the problem here in the US, too. We may not have socialized medicine, but we have public health authorities who protect the right of AIDs victims to spread their disease, and the right of TB carriers to misuse antibiotics and make themselves into walking incubators of mutated strains.

Maybe it would have happened anyway, but big-city left-wing politics has certainly contributed.

[jjm2111]

A British associate of mine told me that anyone who can afford it purchases private insurance. God help us if we ever go to socialized medicine.

[jjm2111]

You are so correct--Victorian era filth still around; open waste bins in corridors; blood on floors; blood stains on ceilings, walls; mud on floors, etc.

Oh my God.