One of the major problems facing nationalized health care systems is that, despite all promises to the contrary, they do very little (if anything) to reduce the cost of delivering care. There are, after all, only so many ways to do so; by far the most efficient (at least for the Much Vaunted National Health System©) is to simply deny it to "undeserving" folks:
"[S]ix doctors in the U.K. ... claim that the country has gone too far with a publicly funded program aimed at supporting terminally ill patients."
This word, "support" - I dunna think it means what you think it means:
"[T]he Liverpool Care Pathway program is being used to cut costs instead of as simply a more humane mode of care ... allows medical staff to withhold fluid and drugs in a patient’s final days"
Under the Brits' system, "support" means "death," which is an interesting (if macabre) spin on things. We've discussed 'end of life' care here at IB, and determined that there are no easy answers [ed: no kidding]. Although some folks (notably those who advocate it) applaud these "pathways" as both cost-effective and humane, they conveniently ignore the fact that the folks making the decision have a vested interest in the outcome:
"[T]he number of hospital deaths that implemented such end-of-life care measures doubled in the last two years."
That's a lot of dead grannies.
"[S]ix doctors in the U.K. ... claim that the country has gone too far with a publicly funded program aimed at supporting terminally ill patients."
This word, "support" - I dunna think it means what you think it means:
"[T]he Liverpool Care Pathway program is being used to cut costs instead of as simply a more humane mode of care ... allows medical staff to withhold fluid and drugs in a patient’s final days"
Under the Brits' system, "support" means "death," which is an interesting (if macabre) spin on things. We've discussed 'end of life' care here at IB, and determined that there are no easy answers [ed: no kidding]. Although some folks (notably those who advocate it) applaud these "pathways" as both cost-effective and humane, they conveniently ignore the fact that the folks making the decision have a vested interest in the outcome:
"[T]he number of hospital deaths that implemented such end-of-life care measures doubled in the last two years."
That's a lot of dead grannies.
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