Thanks to alert IB reader Peter K, we have two new items to add to our Much Vaunted National Health System© database. Last month, we noted that "[MVNHS©] doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage or to free up beds;" this was one side of the coin. It only gets worse, though, when one considers the other side of it:
"Patients undergoing planned operations on the NHS are far more likely to die if they have their operations towards the end of the week ... those who had surgery on a Friday were 44 per cent more likely to die following the procedure than those who had the same operations on a Monday." Of course, when you have an overworked and largely unaccountable group of people providing "care," that TGIF mantra becomes somewhat problematic, no?
It gets worse, though. One of the early criticisms of the ObamaTax is that you'd have care providers with the compassion of the DMV. This is already the case under the MVNHS©, and it's the direction we're headed:
"Almost 3,000 people may have died unnecessarily in just one year at the 14 NHS trusts whose excessive mortality rates were reviewed in the wake of the Mid Staffordshire scandal"
Regular readers may recall that we covered that particular shanda over 4 years ago (and it's still making news):
"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 ... at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust"
At least they've learned their lesson, though, right?
Um, not so much:
"The worst figures were recorded at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals where, in the year to October 2012, the number of deaths anticipated was 1,947 but actually there were 2,357, a difference of 410." [emphasis added]
This is extraordinary, on several levels. First, whatever are they teaching at this hospital? Advanced courses in euthenasia? Second, that "difference of 410" doesn't seem like so much, until one looks at the fact that they were off by almost 30%.
That's not "margin of error," that's Margin of Kevorkian.
"Patients undergoing planned operations on the NHS are far more likely to die if they have their operations towards the end of the week ... those who had surgery on a Friday were 44 per cent more likely to die following the procedure than those who had the same operations on a Monday." Of course, when you have an overworked and largely unaccountable group of people providing "care," that TGIF mantra becomes somewhat problematic, no?
It gets worse, though. One of the early criticisms of the ObamaTax is that you'd have care providers with the compassion of the DMV. This is already the case under the MVNHS©, and it's the direction we're headed:
"Almost 3,000 people may have died unnecessarily in just one year at the 14 NHS trusts whose excessive mortality rates were reviewed in the wake of the Mid Staffordshire scandal"
Regular readers may recall that we covered that particular shanda over 4 years ago (and it's still making news):
"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 ... at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust"
At least they've learned their lesson, though, right?
Um, not so much:
"The worst figures were recorded at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals where, in the year to October 2012, the number of deaths anticipated was 1,947 but actually there were 2,357, a difference of 410." [emphasis added]
This is extraordinary, on several levels. First, whatever are they teaching at this hospital? Advanced courses in euthenasia? Second, that "difference of 410" doesn't seem like so much, until one looks at the fact that they were off by almost 30%.
That's not "margin of error," that's Margin of Kevorkian.
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