Socialist British Healthcare Kills 12,000 Patients Per Year

David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog

A Briton is 5 times more likely to die from government health care than an American is to die from a gunshot.

From Thompson’s Solicitors, U.K.

The largest and most detailed survey into hospital deaths has revealed that almost 12,000 patients are needlessly dying every year as a result of poor patient care.

The researchers from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine based the study on 1,000 deaths at 10 NHS trusts during 2009. The study revealed that basic errors were made in more than one in 10 cases, leading to 5.2% of deaths, which was the equivalent of nearly 12,000 preventable deaths in hospitals in England every year.

The research published in the British Medical Journal’s Quality and Safety publication found that errors occurred when hospital staff made an incorrect diagnosis, prescribed the wrong drugs, failed to monitor a patient’s condition or react when a patient deteriorated. Errors in omission were more frequent than active mistakes.

The majority of patients who died were elderly suffering with multiple health conditions, but the study found that some patients whose deaths were preventable were aged in their 30s and 40s.

Grave neglect.

A UK hospital has apologized and paid a settlement following a lawsuit that revealed years of grave malpractice. The accounts of negligence included letting a patient starve to death and reports of nurses mocking patients.

UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the British press that he was “disgusted and appalled” by the scandal, which affected over 38 families in the Midlands region of the UK. He stressed that the government was working to ensure that such failings of the National Health System (NHS) are detected more quickly in future.

“The failings we uncovered were appalling – vulnerable patients were left starving and thirsty, with drinks left out of reach, buzzers ignored and people left to sit in their own waste by the very people meant to be caring for them,” said Emma Jones, a lawyer from Leigh Day & Co, who represented victims and families.

A court has ordered the hospital to pay out a total of £410,000 ($663,000) to the plaintiffs.

Alexandra hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire, has not admitted liability for the numerous accounts of malpractice, but has issued apologies to the families whose relatives suffered from neglect. Out of all 38 cases, five patients survived – the rest died in the hospital.

……Among the cases of abuse detailed in the lawsuit against Alexandra hospital is that of a 35-year-old father who was left to starve, as medical staffers did not know how to fit his feeding tube. Other reports included a patient who was unable to feed himself; according to his daughter’s testimony, nurses taunted him by putting his food just out of reach, and then took it away uneaten.

Plaintiff Kim White alleged that one of the last things her father said to her was “Get me out of this hellhole,” and that he was give no morphine despite being in extreme pain during the final days of his life.

Another plaintiff, a former nurse, languished unattended by hospital staff for 11 weeks, and was given medication so powerful that she was unable to speak.

Brace yourself, America. When ObamaCare kicks in, expect our health care system to be overwhelmed and understaffed with the same type of neglect.

Change.