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June 08, 2005

Could Be Worse

Democrats like to jape at the Bush healthcare plan; "Pray you don't get sick".

Berg's Corollary: Pray you don't get sick in a country with socialized medicine.

David Asman on his encounter with Britain's healthcare system:

When I covered Latin America for The Wall Street Journal, I'd visit hospitals, prisons and schools as barometers of public services in the country. Based on my Latin American scale, Queen's Square would rate somewhere in the middle. It certainly wasn't as bad as public hospitals in El Salvador, where patients often share beds. But it wasn't as nice as some of the hospitals I've seen in Buenos Aires or southern Brazil. And compared with virtually any hospital ward in the U.S., Queen's Square would fall short by a mile.

The equipment wasn't ancient, but it was often quite old. On occasion my wife and I would giggle at heart and blood-pressure monitors that were literally taped together and would come apart as they were being moved into place. The nurses and hospital technicians had become expert at jerry-rigging temporary fixes for a lot of the damaged equipment. I pitched in as best as I could with simple things, like fixing the wiring for the one TV in the ward. And I'd make frequent trips to the local pharmacies to buy extra tissues and cleaning wipes, which were always in short supply.

In fact, cleaning was my main occupation for the month we were at Queen's Square. Infections in hospitals are, of course, a problem everywhere. But in Britain, hospital-borne infections are getting out of control. At least 100,000 British patients a year are hit by hospital-acquired infections, including the penicillin-resistant "superbug" MRSA. A new study carried out by the British Health Protection Agency says that MRSA plays a part in the deaths of up to 32,000 patients every year. But even at lower numbers, Britain has the worst MRSA infection rates in Europe. It's not hard to see why.

As far as we could tell in our month at Queen's Square, the only method of keeping the floors clean was an industrious worker from the Philippines named Marcello, equipped with a mop and pail. Marcello did the best that he could. But there's only so much a single worker can do with a mop and pail against a ward full of germ-laden filth. Only a constant cleaning by me kept our little corner of the ward relatively germ-free. When my wife and I walked into Cornell University Hospital in New York after a month in England, the first thing we noticed was the floors. They were not only clean. They were shining! We were giddy with the prospect of not constantly engaging in germ warfare.

The whole thing is a scary but required read.

Posted by Mitch at June 8, 2005 04:55 AM | TrackBack
Comments

It's Bush's fault.

Posted by: Eracus at June 8, 2005 06:51 AM

Funny, a friend of mine suffered a grand mal seizure in Aberdeen a couple years ago and he was very impressed with the British health care system. He was admitted to a hospital and examined by doctors immediately, without filling out endless forms to prove he could pay for it.

He is an American, not a citizen of the UK, and a conservative Republican. Of course, he doesn't work for Fox News.

American health care is great, no doubt, if you can afford it. I'm sure the British system has problems. So does the American system.

Posted by: Pug at June 8, 2005 11:25 AM

Hey, Mitch, the free market works! If the folks who were putting up with crummy health care wanted to pay for something better, they could have had it. Harley Street medico, private hospital. It's available. what they got, they didn't pay a dime for. Same diff in the US; insurance and HMO or the charity ward. What's your point?

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