More on inhumane health care

  Well, you can tell story after story after story about the inhumane health care in British hospitals, as told by the Brits themselves. You can shout your opposition to the masses that you DO NOT WANT a health care system like the British one as Obama's guy Berwick desires. In response, those young people who've lived or visited the UK for any length of time will poo poo it, saying something like, "Oh, I lived there for a bit and it was great. I had a (fill in the blank minor health issue) and it was fixed immediately at no charge."
  You might get a Brit email now and then, saying that even the family members of the very BEST Brits like Cameron have received good health care through the system.
  Of course. If you're somebody or young, you would think it works.
  If you're chronically ill, you might have a different story.
  If you're elderly, you most likely WILL have a different story.
  Of course, the wonks in charge really aren't that concerned about the elderly, either here or there. Why? 
  Because of the Quality of Life analysis, which determines that the very young and the elderly are the most expensive drains on the system (translation: the vulnerable and needy). (Plus: it looks like the idea is to ruin a quality life and then complain about the cost.)
  That really sounds sympathetic.
  The Telegraph has story after story of the mistreatment of the elderly in a report out yesterday. One of the problems in the British system is the numerous hospital staff who do not speak English well. Plus why would you have affinity for a people if you do not speak the language and are just there for a paycheck?
  Here are a couple victims from the Telegraph story. Read the whole thing:

1. Mrs J – all those involved in the report have been kept anonymous – was 82, had Alzheimer’s and lived in a nursing home. She was rushed to Ealing Hospital one evening when her husband found she was having breathing difficulties during a visit. He spent three hours in a waiting room without staff realising he was there, and so missed the chance to be with his wife as she died. In addition, the Ombudsman found the monitoring of his wife by medics had been poor, as had the hospital’s complaints process. Mr J said: “It was a shabby, sad end to my poor wife’s life.”

2. A man who was diagnosed with stomach cancer, known as Mr D, was discharged from the Royal Bolton Hospital on an August Bank Holiday weekend in a process described by his daughter as a “shambles”. He was left sitting in a chair, behind drawn curtains, for several hours in pain and desperate to use the lavatory. He was so dehydrated that his tongue was “like dried leather”. Mr D was not given sufficient painkillers and so his family had to spend the weekend in a “frantic” and “harrowing” effort to find more, just days before he died. His daughter said the hospital treated him “as if he didn’t exist”.

The original article can be found here, along with background and the scandal itself. The Telegraph:

A study of pensioners who suffered appalling treatment at the hands of doctors and nurses says that half were not given enough to eat or drink. One family member said the maltreatment amounted to “euthanasia”.

Some were left unwashed or in soiled clothes, while others were forgotten after being sent home or given the wrong medication. 

  There are other links at this article, including the expenditure of great gobs of money on non existent operations and more taxes to pay specifically for elderly care, as if just money's the problem there. 
  Who thinks the problem isn't just money?