Telegraph.co.uk: A&E Patients 'Left in Ambulances for Hours"

[DustinG]

This is an older story, but with universal healthcare being an issue in the upcoming election, I wanted to bring a story to the forefront that our American liberal press would not tell you. We need to understand the pros & cons of what this system would do to our healthcare.

The fact is that medical bills can leave families with insurmountable debt that they may never recover from and some cannot receive the best treatment others can because of not having health insurance. There is a major problem with our healthcare, but I do not believe it is the only healthcare system with colossal troubles.

The fact is that the citizens of the United States has more availability to see a doctor than the countries of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Canada combined. The creator of the Canadian healthcare system declared that their system is broken and near failing, he suggested that the Canadian government begin returning some aspects of healthcare back to the private sector. In Canada also, there are towns where they have lottery drawings every week, unlike our Hoosier lottery, the winner of these drawings wins the chance to visit the town doctor. There are currently over a million Canadians waiting in line for necessary surgery.

The United States drug companies develop over half of the new drugs in the world, because they can invest large amounts of money into developing these drugs and will be able to make the numerous amounts of profits necessary to cover that investment. Universal healthcare does not make costs cheaper, in fact the cost of healthcare rises, but the money comes out of peoples' paychecks instead of paying for it in bills.

I am clearly not for national healthcare, even though I currently do not have health insurance myself, I feel that I should not be required to have to pay for other peoples' bills. Here is a story that I have seen about the touted universal healthcare system in Great Britain:

[B]A&E patients 'left in ambulances for hours'[/B]

By Lucy Cockcroft
Last updated: 2:02 AM GMT 26/02/2008



Seriously ill patients are left for hours in ambulances instead of being immediately admitted to accident and emergency departments to meet a Government target on treatment times, it was claimed yesterday.
The practice of "patient stacking" has left some waiting for up to five hours because A&E units have refused to admit them until they can be treated within the four-hour time limit.
Unison, the public sector union, said the practice poses a danger to other patients because ambulances detained as "waiting rooms" cannot answer new 999 calls.
Mary Maguire, a spokesman for the union, said: "This happens time and time again. It is an appalling waste of resources. We should not use ambulances as waiting rooms.
"A 16-year-old terminally ill cancer patient died after waiting over an hour for an ambulance to transfer him. Three ambulances could have reached him but they were tied up waiting to hand over patients to A&E."
Dr Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, called the situation ''entirely inappropriate and unacceptable". 
Evidence of patient stacking is revealed in the official ''turnaround time" data released by seven of England's 11 regional ambulance services.
The figures show that over the past 15 months at least 44,000 delays were reported by the ambulance services. In some cases the delays were up to five hours.
Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, said the situation represented ''a scandalous distortion of practice to meet a target that is meant to improve the service".
Mike Penning, the Tory shadow health minister, said: "Not admitting people to hospital but stacking patients in car parks beggars belief in the 21st century."
George Alberti, the Department of Health's national director for emergency access and service design, denied the claim that Government targets are putting pressure on A&E staff to resort to patient stacking. He said: "The four-hour clock for A&E waiting starts 15 minutes after the ambulance arrives, regardless of whether the patient has been handed over."

Three separate sources for this article:

A&E patients 'left in ambulances for hours' - Telegraph
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Southern Counties | Ambulances 'queue' to enter A&E
A&E patients left in ambulances for up to FIVE hours 'so trusts can meet government targets' | Mail Online

 

[Bill of Rights]

A&E patients 'left in ambulances for hours'

By Lucy Cockcroft
Last updated: 2:02 AM GMT 26/02/2008



Seriously ill patients are left for hours in ambulances instead of being immediately admitted to accident and emergency departments to meet a Government target on treatment times, it was claimed yesterday.
The practice of "patient stacking" has left some waiting for up to five hours because A&E units have refused to admit them until they can be treated within the four-hour time limit.
Unison, the public sector union, said the practice poses a danger to other patients because ambulances detained as "waiting rooms" cannot answer new 999 calls.
Mary Maguire, a spokesman for the union, said: "This happens time and time again. It is an appalling waste of resources. We should not use ambulances as waiting rooms.
"A 16-year-old terminally ill cancer patient died after waiting over an hour for an ambulance to transfer him. Three ambulances could have reached him but they were tied up waiting to hand over patients to A&E."
Dr Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, called the situation ''entirely inappropriate and unacceptable".
Evidence of patient stacking is revealed in the official ''turnaround time" data released by seven of England's 11 regional ambulance services.
The figures show that over the past 15 months at least 44,000 delays were reported by the ambulance services. In some cases the delays were up to five hours.
Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, said the situation represented ''a scandalous distortion of practice to meet a target that is meant to improve the service".
Mike Penning, the Tory shadow health minister, said: "Not admitting people to hospital but stacking patients in car parks beggars belief in the 21st century."
George Alberti, the Department of Health's national director for emergency access and service design, denied the claim that Government targets are putting pressure on A&E staff to resort to patient stacking. He said: "The four-hour clock for A&E waiting starts 15 minutes after the ambulance arrives, regardless of whether the patient has been handed over."

(code tags changed to quotes for readability)

Blessings,
B