Subscribe345 Die In UK Hospitals - From Poor Sanitation
From the UK’s Independent:
Clostridium difficile bacterium
Horrific state of hospitals blamed for lethal bug outbreak which killed 345
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 11 October 2007
Three hospitals in Kent were so decrepit, overcrowded, understaffed and badly managed that when a lethal bacterial infection took hold it spread unchecked, causing death and disease on an unprecedented scale.
An investigation found that more than 1,100 patients were infected with the Clostridium difficile bacterium at the hospitals between April 2004 and September 2006 which directly caused the deaths of 90 of them. In all it contributed to the deaths of 345 people.
It is the worst outbreak of the bacterium recorded by the Healthcare Commission, the Government’s NHS watchdog, whose report on the hospitals run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is published today. The affected hospitals were the Maidstone Hospital with 738 cases, Kent and Sussex Hospital (353 cases) and Pembury Hospital (85 cases).
Mainly affecting elderly patients, C. difficile causes diarrhoea, dehydration, inflammation of the gut and death. It is highly contagious and can be spread on hands, bedclothes and furniture. Yet infected patients who begged for commodes were told by overstretched nurses to “go in the bed”, because it was less time-consuming than helping them to the lavatory. The report criticised lack of hygiene involving lavatories, commodes and walking frames.
C. difficile bacterium first came to national attention through an outbreak at Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire – revealed by The Independent in June 2005 – where 334 patients were infected and 33 had died over the previous two years.
An investigation by the Healthcare Commission, published in June 2006, blamed “serious failings” by senior managers who gave priority to government targets and control of their finances and ignored warnings from infection control specialists…
Is this the shape of things to come?
7 Responses to “345 Die In UK Hospitals - From Poor Sanitation”
Leave a Reply
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:48 am
I personally think it’s a minimum of what will be ahead.
Most people dislike HMOs - control over visits to specialists, liberals complain care is rationed if it’s too expensive, etc.
What is socialized medicine but one giant HMO?
Worse, since the “rich” will still be able to get better quality care, the only way HillaryCare will ever work is if they make private care illegal.
Think it can’t happen? I once thought no one would ever believe in Global Warming because it’s supported by zero facts.
Oh well.
October 11th, 2007 at 3:30 am
Is this the shape of things to come?
To answer your question in a word SG, yes, if Hillary has her way. Look at the nursing home industry and all of its associated horrors. Many nursing home residents (or prisoners, in a lot of cases) have been forgotten and discarded by a society which has become more and more self-centered. They have no choice regarding their situation and no one who wants to put the effort into trying to change it because it doesn’t affect them…. YET. I realize that this might seem like an off topic rant however I feel that nursing homes serve as an excellent example of what happens when people have no voice in their situation, and their very existence is in the hands of a faceless, coldhearted bureaucracy. The medical system in this country will become this type of nightmare on an unprecedented scale.
October 11th, 2007 at 8:35 am
October 11th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Yes. Think of the benefits:
More patient deaths is better for Mother Gaia in the long run - too many people pollute, anyway.
More deaths means less costs for care.
More deaths free up rationed beds for other patients, so they can get sick and die in unsanitary hospitals, thus repeating the glorious cycle of culling the herd for the sake of the common good.
It really is a communist’s paradise. But remember, it’s FOR OUR OWN GOOD. The Democrats always know what’s best for us, especially as they receive treatment in state-of-the-art, sanitary facilities while the hoi polloi festers and dies at sub-standard, government run hospitals.
And remember folks, with socialized medicine - there IS NO RECOURSE. Your doctor screws up now, you can sue him. Your hospital is unsanitary, you can sue them. With the government - who would you sue? No one. You’d be S.O.L. and six-feet under.
I fully predict that socialized medicine in the US will include not only the above, but the following:
Mandatory sterilization or abortions for people with more than the state-mandated two children.
Euthanasia for anyone past the age of 80.
Laws outlawing meat, sugar, salt, chocolate, fats, cheese, and anything else deemed “unhealthy” by the state.
What a joy it will be when a select few control the rest of us like puppets!
October 11th, 2007 at 10:22 am
“Laws outlawing meat, sugar, salt, chocolate, fats, cheese, and anything else deemed “unhealthy” by the state.”
Does that mean I can keep my favorite Ale? Great!
October 11th, 2007 at 10:40 am
They won’t make private care illegal, they’ll just do what they have done with Medicare. If a provider wants to be a Medicare provider he must agree not to balance bill any Medicare patient a premium over Medicare rates. If a provider wants to be free to bill what he feels his services are worth he must send Medicare a letter stating that he will no longer be a Medicare provider. Once the provider does this Medicare will not reimburse the patient for any care provided by the non-enrolled provider even if it would otherwise be a covered service. Needless to say, in most specialties there aren’t enough patients willing to pay for care out of their own pocket to make this a viable option. Bill Clinton came up with this idea to kill any practice that did not sign up with Medicare–so there is no premium care option for routine services, although it is not technically illegal as long as the provider willing to opt out of Medicare.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:00 am
I’ve just finished reading Ayn Rand’s “Anthem”. How amazingly real it is today. And how frightening.