BBC;
Ipswich Hospital, in Suffolk, which is more than £16m in the red, accidentally breached an agreement to ensure all patients had similar waiting times.Ipswich Hospital agreed with the East Suffolk Primary Care Trusts, which fund treatment, that patients should wait at least four months for treatment.
However, doctors had treated patients inside that time and the trust refused to pay the £2.5m cost of treatment.
This will now have to come from the hospital's own budget, adding to its financial difficulties.
An Ipswich Hospital spokeswoman described the incident as a "local glitch".
[...]
The hospital spokeswoman said it was thought the agreement would be the best way to ensure that no-one jumped queues and that everyone was waiting a similar length of time
Not satire.
Planning at its best!
The ultimate in fairness!
Has anybody advised the NDP? Their next election platform should contain:
"Minimum wait times - fairness and equality for all!"
Hey! I have no trouble getting medical care here in the UK!
Oh yeah, I forgot.
I use the private system.
In the near future when the baby boomers hit their hospital years watch for fire works that the politicians and unions can't sluff off anymore. I have a feeling that the boomers lives and longevity will be a little more secure that those "in charge".
In the near future when the baby boomers hit their hospital years watch for fire works that the politicians and unions can't sluff off anymore. I have a feeling that the boomers lives and longevity will be a little more secure that those "in charge".
In the near future when the baby boomers hit their hospital years watch for fire works that the politicians and unions can't sluff off anymore. I have a feeling that the boomers lives and longevity will be a little more secure than those "in charge".
Sorry about that
Socialism in a nutshell: a race to the bottom.
Socialized medicine benefits the collective -- if it weren't for the selfish, self-centred individuals who ruin it by actually showing up expecting treatment.
Health care needs to start from birth. Children should learn a healthy lifestyle in the schools. Blaming public health is wrong. Blame the private fast food and junk food companies for marketing and selling us that crap. That's socialism. Do you think us younger people want to pay for boomers bad habits? Think again.
Western Canadian: Unfortunately us younger folk will also have to suffer in queues along with the boomers. No doubt most of SDA readers have heard about the Calgary woman who miscarriaged and bled all over the waiting room floor in front of 40 people while being forced to wait for help in an emergency waiting room. We are already having to suffer through ridiculous waiting times but we have become so accustomed to it that we seem to think it is normal.
It will probably take some sort of international disaster, like a plane crashing into an urban area or a terrorist attack, to really expose how terribly over-burdened our health system has become.
"It will probably take some sort of international disaster, like a plane crashing into an urban area or a terrorist attack, to really expose how terribly over-burdened our health system has become"
Or ,..
Alexa and Uberhomo Willy Graham will demand a thorough investigation, at which they will
scream, and CBC will report, marxist/lenninst 1930's social models from the roof tops, and then denigrate and block the dieing Canadians from saying anything.
nobody calls the canadian health system what it is, a communist system with central planning and no competition allowed
I read the whole incredible story at the Beeb website. Only a complete Socialist idiot of a bureaucrat would think it "fair" to STRETCH medical treatment ("non-urgent inpatient treatment") wait times for some patients so that all patients will have the same wait time.
Somehow, I just can't believe that when senior National Health Service bureaucrats or somebody in their family needs treatment, they endure the same wait times as the rest of the peasants.
Now, THAT would be a good story for a diligent British investigative journalist to research and write. That's IF he/she were permitted to do so; and IF any major newspaper, radio or TV entity would have the guts to publish or broadcast it...
Did you really have to dance on Tommy Douglas' grave in the headline to a story that isn't even about Canada's Health Care system, and is about something I'm quite certain Mr. Douglas NEVER would have favoured in any case?
Just a little class is all I ask.
I second what Lord Kitch. said. Entirely bogus headline.
"Mr. Douglas NEVER would have favoured in any case?"
Hmmm, maybe Mr.Douglas did not forsee wait times, but being a compassionate "progressive" socialist he did favor eugenics.
According to Wikipedia:
"His thesis entitled The Problems of the Subnormal Family was on eugenics, a way to "solve the problems of the Subnormal Family" by sterilizing mentally and physically disabled Canadians, and send them to camps."
Our greatest Canadian, Tommy Douglas.
...and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. The headline is still bogus.
re: Headline. You have completely missed the point. The headline is completely appropos because this is the mindset of socialism in medicine. Tommy brought it to Canada and it is running rampant.
Lord Kitchener made a great point about the improper headline and those defending it have either cited irrelevant conclusions or begged the question. Lazy thinking indeed.
Kitchener's point stands uncontested.
LKO, Sigh, and the rest of the cult of victimhood: did Kate's scary words make you cry? Do you need 6 weeks of paid stress leave? Grief counselling? Do you feel "entitled" to an apology, cash settlement, and state funding for the Institute of Cuddling? Kate's headline refers to a long running inside joke here at SDA that you are too lame to grok. Having read horror stories on health care in Saskatchewan and elsewhere in Canada I'd argue she is entirely justified in debunking the myth of the Greatest Canadian Eugenicist.
Er, if you lot can't see the connection between a criticism of socialist Medicare and the "Grandfather of Canadian Medicare" you're a bunch of halfwits.
This is not a Canadian example. So what? It's an example of the stupidity of socialism. Socialism's stupidity knows no boarders.
By connecting Douglas to this story it links him with examples of what his poisoned ideology reaps - and I'm not even referring to the Eugenics which should damn his legacy for a thousand years.
It never ceases to amaze me how blinkered, illogical and self-righteous you right-wingnuts can be: constantly bringing up Tommy Douglas and eugenics is a perfect example. Perhaps if you used your brains for a second you would realize Tommy Douglas never instituted an eugenics program, but on the otherhand Alberta was sterilizing people from 1928 to 1972.
Since Ernest Manning was Alberta's Premier from 1943 to 1968, and he never stopped this program, that must mean he approved of eugenics. Since it is normal operating procedure for the right-wingers at sda to issue blanket condemnations of certain ideologies, perhaps a little of the same is in order for you...Ernest Manning: supporter of eugenics, just like the Nazis; father of Preston Manning (who would therefore be genetically predesposed to support eugenics), founder of the Reform Party, which has now evolved into the Conservative Party of Canada, and because of the beliefs of it's founders has definite links to the ideology of the Nazis.
Yup, using right-wing logic can be fun.
Iberia, I think you are genetically predisposed to jump to conclusions.
Earnest Manning wasn't the "Father of Medicare" as the dippers so lovingly call TC Douglas. That is supposed to be this "Great Canadian's" claim to fame. The politics of a provincial government being equated to Nazis is almost laughable if not for the fact that left wing zealots try to make the connection all the time. Hitler was a catholic so therefore all catholics are Nazi too?
Using left-wing logic (also called fuzzy logic by some) can be scary.
When the boomers start needing hospital care they will deny it to others, e. g. anyone older than they are. Look for quiet rules which state "no treatment to anyone over 75 or so for certain conditions"e.g. bypasses, cancer treatment, etc. This already happened to my grandfather when he was told they would "watch" a "shadow on his lungs". He died of lung cancer six months later. Be very careful, as the boomers have always taken the best of everything for themselves. They got a cheap university education and then kept raising the tuition for all the younger people coming along. They think all the benefits are for them.
TC:
Obviously your brain is shorting out trying to think about this issue because you have missed the point: Why do right-wingers always try to find an excuse to disparage people like Tommy Douglas?
This article was not about Douglas, it was about medical care in England. Moreover, Douglas did not institute or condone a eugenics program, unlike others, including figures from the Right like Manning, so attacking him on this issue is stupid.
Linking eugenics to Douglas, "a socialist", is something that is frequently done here and it is misleading because people weren't being sterilized under Tommy Douglas' reign. They were, however, being sterilized in right-wing Alberta and also in Nazi Germany so the link here is a lot more obvious.
"Hitler was a catholic so therefore all catholics are Nazi too?"
Only if we use right-wing logic.
[Ed. note: The Welfare State: The Root of Canada's Problems. H/T Fjordman]. Warning: Long essay. ...-
The Welfare State: The Root of Europe’s Problems
Brussels Journal ^ | 3 August 2006 | By Fjordman
I have heard comments from people who thought Fjordman was from Sweden, because I write at least as much about Sweden as I do about my own country, Norway. There are several reasons for this. The most important one is that Sweden is probably one of the worst, if not the worst, country in the Western world when it comes to Political Correctness. Norway is pretty bad, Sweden is absolutely insane. Which makes it fun to write about.
The other reason is that Sweden is the largest and best known of the Scandinavian countries. When people in Canada or the USA discuss the Scandinavian welfare state, they usually talk about the “Swedish model,” not the “Norwegian model.” The Swedish welfare state was presented during the Cold War as a middle way between capitalism and Communism. When this model of a society collapses – and it will collapse – it is thus not just the Swedish welfare state that will collapse but the symbol of Sweden, the showcase of an entire ideological world view. ...-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1677962/posts
Why do you people attack universal healthcare. You all must be young and healthy or old with money you need to blow. Do have any idea how much it would cost with no healthcare?? Next time you need major surgery go south of the border to have it. You have that choice. Then you'll find out the real cost of no medi-care. You don't have a fiddelers clue what you're advocating. Ask some of your American friends what the real cost is?? I know 3 people 2 of which were snowbirds the other a farming realative. The first one was a farmer who spent winters in Texas w/o insurance. He had a stroke.........150,000.00 later he came back to Canada to die. The second was a friend who spent winters down south with insurance. He had a stroke it cost his insurer 90,000.00. That's not all he could not go back to the states for 2 years. He found a different insurer at 1600.00 for coverage for 6 mos per year. The 3rd was a cousin who had a farm in the USA,got ill and had to sell the farm to pay hospital bills. He died broke. It took all his money. That's the reality. What the hell are you trying to sell??? Insurance companies want to make money if you start to cost them money they limit your coverage and cut you off.. You don't want to get sick in the states.
"constantly bringing up Tommy Douglas"
That is delicious irony.
Bringing up Toomy Douglas. Yeah.
Here's Toomy on the hoax/fraud of socialism:
"In 1947, Douglas introduced universal hospitalization at a fee of $5 per year per person. "It is paid out of the treasury. Instead of the burden of those hospital bills falling on sick people, it
is spread over all the people".
The Rev. Tommy Douglas: Let us prey on the people.
Iberia, obviously you cannot connect the dots so here it is for you.
Socialized medicine in Britian punishes those who are actually efficient and do things ahead of schedule. Socialized medicine just like Canada which was championed by... you guessed it TC Douglas. Is the frikkin link clear to you now???
The Canadian medical system is so wrapped up in the universal healthcare dream that they too screw up to the point of not doing anything different lest it work. To qualify this I work in the healthcare system, first Canada and now the US. Been there, done that.
TC:
I understand perfectly what you are saying. It's just that it is nonsense. Using your logic, Jesus is at fault for the inquisition
Texas there is no point in trying to reason with people who refuse to take their blinders off!
..iberia I'd be interested in knowing what part of the country you hail from. if I was to guess it would be tranna
No, not quite...in fact I live in lovely Victoria, where as of a few moments ago I was enjoying a nice glass of wine while watching the sun set beyond the Sooke hills.
Perhaps I can help clear up the why's:
a)Every Saskatchewan resident, every Saskatchewan schoolchild, has been indoctrinated with the myth that Saskatchewan is the "birthplace" of socialized medicine (not just in Canada - worldwide), and that TC Douglas was the pediatrician.
b)If one is to take a) at face value, then Tommy Douglas is responsible for the consequences of socialized medicine, not just in Canada, but worldwide.
c) Most importantly - all posts here at SDA on this topic are under the category of "Tommy Douglas, Not Dead Enough". It makes the site easier to search.
d)Stop nitpicking. It's a silly and transparent diversionary tactic.
"Ask some of your American friends what the real cost is?? "
Were you aware that in the health care debate in the United States, the Canadian system is used as a precautionary example?
Even those who are in favour of socialized medicine in the US back away from the Canadain system like vampires from a cross.
Similar irrationality exists in the Canadian system. I was involved in more than one situation where the operating facility was available, the anesthesiologist was willing to give the anesthetic, the surgeon was available to operate, the patient was more than happy to pay for the procedure, and the facility director nixed it because it would get him in trouble with the health region for exceeding his quota for that procedure. Solution: the patient was added to the waiting list and had to wait for the next budget year before the procedure could be done.
So, DrD, who's fault is it then? What would you recommend as a solution?
"the swedish model"
a long, long time ago I was going over some articles in a newspaper, and stumbled upon one of those you never forget.
it was a swedish business couple complaining they could not afford to expand their business because if it succeeded and continued to make more money, they would be taxed at MORE than 100%
this baffled me to no end and Ive never forgotten it.
they explained it was because of some odd quirk in that country's tax laws which I would hope has long since been rectified but you never know ...
Fidel Gastro loves socialized medicine. Socialists get immediate service. All others die waiting.
"You don't want to get sick in the states."
I have a friend who is alive today precisely because he was in the States when he got ill, seriously ill. His treatment was immediate and superb. He would be dead today if he had gotten the same illness in Canada.
And for those who lament that we couldn't afford medical care if we had to pay for it, exactly who do you think is paying for it now?
Here's the deal. Some 45% or so of our provincial budget goes to health care. Give that $3 billion back to us, the people on a per capita basis (just over $3,000 each) per year and I'm quite sure I can afford the $2,000 per year left over for private health insurance. Oh, and I'd even have an extra $1,000 per year to put towards my fitness club dues so I could stay healthy enough to not need a doctor every week like some whiners do when they stub their toe.
Please, and if one more socialist tells me that in the States, some 20 million people aren't covered by insurance...yes, how true, but do any of these socialists tell you that these same 20 million people (or whatever the inflated number they use) are still covered by the federal and country hospital systems? NO ONE...and I repeat NO ONE in the States is denied medical care. Not even Edgar the homeless guy who lives under the bridge in downtown Cincinatti is left behind.
Now pay me what the government has confiscated from me so I can buy my damn insurance, take care of myself and not worry about the guy next door who doesn't bother to wear protective clothing while he trims his hedges...or the woman down the street whose primary garbage contents are Burger King bags and Slurpee cups...or the guy at work who slips outside every 10 minutes for a puff or two...or the...wait a minute....IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT! I forgot...the socialist mentality is to blame corporate Canada for all of our problems and they have to rush to aid and rescue us from the evils of ruthless cigarette makers, hooch brewers and fast food moguls...all the while they tax the hell out of the previous two so they can try and spend their way into justifying their bloated existence.
Puh-lease....enough of the hornswaggling already. I'm a grown up and dont' need anyone to hold my hand for God's sake (oh crap, I shouldn't have used God as it is not PC). Oh well...
And if I hear another socialist whine about two-tier health care, can they please explain to me why I can pick up the phone, call the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN, book an MRI, hop a plane and get it done within a week? I'm sure if the socialist regime had their way, they'd pick you off the jetway and hold you in Canada just to make sure you're not skipping through the sick and almost dead waiting line.