MVNHS©: Out of this World (And Into the 3rd)

Those that favor a gummint-run health care system, ala the Brits' NHS (known to IB regulars as the MVNHS©) generally gloss over the many failings of such schemes. We've been pointing them out for years, focusing primarily on issues of cost control and rationing of services. There's now growing evidence that, rather than elevating health care, such systems actually demean those who need it:

"Appalling standards of care that may have contributed to the deaths of at least 400 patients at a hospital trust were missed repeatedly by managers and regulators...A report by the Healthcare Commission into death rates at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust found that receptionists were given responsibility for carrying out medical checks and patients were left screaming in pain for hours."

Oh yeah, sign me right up!

One shudders to think.

But it actually gets worse:

"Families have described Third World conditions at the trust, with some patients drinking water from vases and others left on trolleys for hours without medication."

This is not the MVNHS© we thought we knew.

Also keep in mind that this hospital was repeatedly cited as a model of health care, lauded for its "elite foundation status and [continuing] to receive positive annual reports." Which begs the question: if this is the expected level of care at an elite facility, what must it be like at "normal" ones?

Tell me again why such a system is preferable to our own?