Getting Ugly

While our own health care system has its problems, those hankerin' for a gummint takeover of it may want to take a step back and consider some potential problems.

The MVNHS© is seeing an unintended (one hopes) consequence of long lines and limited services:

"One in three doctors has been physically or verbally attacked at work in the last year...One in 10 was physically attacked, including being stabbed, kicked, punched, bitten or spat on. Of these, a third suffered minor injuries but one in 20 was seriously hurt."

I must admit, as ardent an opponent of such systems as I am, I had never suspected that the Brits would trade in their stiff upper lips for doctors' fat lips.

And things aren't much better for our brethren North of the Border, either:

"Faced with an aging population requiring increasingly complex care, overwhelmed Canadian doctors are feeling more and more frustrated by their inability to properly serve their patients' health needs...75 per cent reported that inadequate funding of the health-care system and an undersupply of physicians and other health professionals...are curtailing the amount and level of care they want to provide patients."

One of the points we've repeatedly made here at IB is that such systems don't really contain costs, they just limit access to ever-increasing ones. Let's just hope that the Canucks don't start high-sticking their doctors.