This is a post from a blogger, who is clearly unhappy with the National Health System in the UK. I am neither agreeing or disagreeing with his post, but this is an ongoing discussion, or war as you have it. Clearly, the NHS is not an ideal system, and this may stem from poor management, poor use of the system, lack of real preventive care (British are the fattest in Europe, and just behind the US in obesity rates), economic problems in general, etc. Certainly, I’ve heard horror stories of the conditions of some of their hospitals and also about the absymal way some nurses are treated. Pay sucks, working conditions suck in general, and they are well known for poaching nurses from developing countries to staff their system.

That said, guaranteed health care paid for with taxes does have its advantages. Even if you may have to wait or certain drugs are unavailable.

This blogger writes:

Currently, waiting lists are common for most things on the NHS, especially hip and knee replacement surgeries, which are on the increase as people live longer. You can sometimes wait up to 18 weeks just for a referral. It can then take up to two years to actually receive the operation; that is if you meet all the NHS requirements, which include weight and age. One unlucky 61-year-old was refused life-saving heart surgery because she was deemed too old by a cash-strapped NHS Trust.

Well, that can happen here if you don’t have health insurance, or if you are underinsured. Both of our systems have problems with lack of access, anyway you look at it. People here who scorn socialized medical systems like this one never really look at the hierarchy that exists in the US. We have great healthcare if you can afford it. If you lose your health insurance, for whatever reason, and have a pre-existing condition, you may remain the uninsured until you reach Medicare age. Not a good situation if you are 30 years old when you turn into the leper that health insurance companies flee from.

Socialized medicine often means mediocre and late service. The patient does not get to choose the physician, the hospital, care plan, or timing of the operation or procedure. In Britain, that means relinquishing control and putting your health at the mercy of a system with a zip code lottery. Some Hospital Trusts have more money than others, but on the whole drugs are rationed, waiting lists are too long, and when things do go wrong you have to fight a bureaucratic machine that can take years and lots of your cash to prove medical negligence.

In many ways, our systems are not all that unalike. Especially when it comes to a bureaucratic machine or being at the mercy of a health system. Again, I’m not plugging this as the solution to our healthcare woes, but surely something else exists — in between our system and the NHS? In an alternate reality, maybe?

I’m really surprised that no one from the politically correct squad commented on my views about putting 19th caps on 21st century nursing heads.  Nothing about how it will benefit the patient if their nurses resembles Florence Nightingale, or how the cap closely resembles those worn by maids and afterall, that is how nurses should see themselves–selflessly serving the patient.

And really, to tear apart such a heroic effort at improving nursing during National Nurses Week. Well, glad the nurse police aren’t out and about, or at least, maybe attending to real matters, like workplace abuse.