Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Are We Headed for This Kind of Medicine?

Chuck has posted several links to examples of the great care one receives from socialized medicine:

Cancer survivor confronts the health secretary on 62-day wait

The current target of 62 days from urgent referral by a doctor to starting treatment has still not been met in Scotland, despite that originally being the target figure for 2005.


Girl, 3, has heart operation cancelled three times because of bed shortage
More than 57,000 surgeries were postponed for non-clinical reasons, including a lack of beds, last year – 10 per cent more than the previous year.

Latest figures show that the problem persists. At least 43,000 operations were cancelled in the first nine months of 2008-09, with nearly 1,800 patients not being treated within 28 days of their original scheduled date.


Kidney cancer patients denied life-saving drugs by NHS rationing body NICE
Thousands of kidney cancer patients are likely to lose out on life-prolonging drugs.
The NHS rationing body, NICE, has confirmed a ban on three out of four new treatments.
It has reversed its position on just one, Sutent, which will now be allowed for patients with advanced cancer.

But campaigners who fought NICE's original blanket ban said this was not enough. They said some patients with heart problems cannot tolerate Sutent.
Kate Spall, head of the Pamela Northcott Fund campaign group, said the ruling meant that fewer than half of newly diagnosed patients would be eligible for therapy.


We're told socialized medicine will give us better results. I'm sure these patients would disagree.