Aug 18 2009
UK NHS Covered Up Botched Health Care Incidents
One of the strange by-products of the UK National Health Service (the UK’s version of a ‘public option’. a.k.a. government run health care, single payer, Obamacare, etc.) is the complete lack of transparency and accountability regarding malpractice. Government entities usually have the nasty ability to cover up their mistakes and hide them from the public footing the bill and paying the price, in more ways than one.
It seems that under these government run disasters, there are great efforts to hide the devastating screw ups and the victims of the screw ups:
The number of patients killed by hospital blunders has soared by 60 per cent in just two years, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Official records show that 3,645 died as a result of outbreaks of infections, botched operations and other mistakes in 2007/08. That was up from 2,275 two years before.
Critics say quality of NHS care has suffered as doctors and nurses come under pressure to meet Government waiting time targets.
But experts say the true toll is certain to be even higher, because many hospitals still do not record all of the ‘patient safety incidents’ – meaning that lessons which could have been learned are lost.
In America’s current market based health care system there is more transparency and accountability it seems, especially given the constant threat of litigation. I think I would prefer our system of checks and balances and choice over the nightmare that is socialized medicine as practiced in the UK and elsewhere.
Studies have shown that even we do not have enough disclosure.
Due to gag orders in settlements of malpractice cases and medical review board in many cases running interference for fellow doctors , we have in some cases, an environment similar to the Catholic Church shuffling their problem priest around for a long history.