The UK Plan: Death Panels and Rationing

For years we've heard the argument that socialized medicine works in other countries, so it should be adopted in the United States as well. "Canada and England have socialized medicine, it works for them ... blah, blah, blah."


Two weeks ago I blogged about comments the incoming President of the Canadian Medical Association made about their "imploding" health care system. Canadian doctors are asking for a "private option".

Doctors in the UK are now speaking out about problems with their socialized health care program, the National Health Service.

'Sentenced to death on the NHS'
Patients with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn today.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

As a result the scheme is causing a “national crisis” in patient care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative care experts including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke’s cancer centre in Guildford, and four others.

If this "guidance" that the NHS has offered sounds a more like guidelines offered by a death panel, that's because it is.

Under the guidelines the decision to diagnose that a patient is close to death is made by the entire medical team treating them, including a senior doctor ... When a decision has been made to place a patient on the pathway doctors are then recommended to consider removing medication or invasive procedures, such as intravenous drips, which are no longer of benefit. If a patient is judged to still be able to eat or drink food and water will still be offered to them, as this is considered nursing care rather than medical intervention.

An "entire medical team" diagnosing when a patient is "close to death" and placed on a "pathway." Death panel indeed.

Another problem on the health care horizon for the NHS: More Rationing!

'1 in 10 NHS jobs 'would have to be cut to meet efficiency targets'
A tenth of health service jobs need to be cut within five years to meet planned £20bn efficiency savings, ministers have been told.

The British baby boom was in the 1960's. In five years their boomers will have an average age of about 50. As they get closer to retirement, their going to need more medical care, not less. There is also a slow but steady uptick in fertility rates in the UK. I'm going too go out on a limb here, by saying that an in increase in child birth leads to an increase in doctor visits.

The NHS currently has a policy of waiting no more than 18 weeks for hospital admission, once a patient has been referred by a doctor, and they don't exactly meet that goal. Can you imagine the outcry if United Healthcare or Kaiser Permanente made their members wait 4 1/2 months for an operation? As the NHS sheds 10% of its works force while demand increases, will the 18 weeks get stretched to 26 weeks, or maybe a year?


I've yet to see an example of socialized medicine that works as effectively as the private U.S. health system. Medicare and Medicaid survive off taxpayer dollars and the fact that they only pay about 1/2 of the going rate for services - hospitals and clinics make up the difference by raising fees on the privately insured.

By definition, in a true socialistic country, the government owns health care. Like Canada, the UK is looking at private options to fix there broken system. Meanwhile, back in Washington D.C., socialists are pushing ObamaCare as the future of medical treatment in the United States.

Doesn't make much sense, does it?