Failures in Socialized Medicine

I see stories from the UK that highlight the failure of socialized medicine and like to post them because the US media won't. While the care was "free" (funded by taxes), the downside that is hard to quantify is the decline in quality.

These stories will continue and continue. They are a product of NHS being a monopoly. A decline in quality of service is a symptom of all monopolies.We all learn that corporate monopolies are bad, but we somehow think that government monopolies will be better.
 
The aggregate cost of healthcare can be cut if people just die quickly. The poor woman died at 44 and had no costly chemotherapy and hopsital stays because the doctors kept misdiagnosing her.



Daily Mail - A mother has died of stomach cancer after her GP and ten doctors failed to diagnose the disease. Angela Skeffington had reported classic stomach cancer symptoms since April but was not given a specialist CT scan until late August, when the disease was finally spotted. But by then the cancer had spread to her liver and lymph nodes and Mrs Skeffington, 44, from Birmingham was told she only had weeks to live.

The former warehouse worker had previously been misdiagnosed with anorexia, depression and period pain.
Her angry relatives have now attacked the NHS for failing to diagnose the cancer earlier. Her sister Christine Layton, 45, from Rugeley, West Midlands, said: 'Doctors tried giving Angela chemotherapy, but it was too late by then and didn't work. 'I know survival rates are not always very long, but my sister could still be here today if the doctors had listened to her. 'She may not have had a lifetime, but they could have given her more time with her children and grandchildren.' For five months, the grandmother-of-five claimed she complained of stabbing pains to the stomach, blood in her vomit and stools, plus a loss of appetite to her GP, Dr Atta Shah at the Khyber Surgery in Saltley, Birmingham, along with a further ten doctors during 12 visits to Heartlands Hospital A&E. Dr Shah had booked a referral to hospital for Mrs Skeffington in June, but she was still awaiting an appointment when she was diagnosed with cancer in August. Speaking after she was first diagnosed with terminal cancer, Mrs Skeffington, who lived with partner John, had said: 'I was made to feel like a nuisance by all the doctors. 'I was treated worse than an animal.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336057/Birmingham-mother-3-dies-11-doctors-fail-diagnose-stomach-cancer.html#ixzz17L6ajjSg



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336057/Birmingham-mother-3-dies-11-doctors-fail-diagnose-stomach-cancer.html#ixzz17L6Xehti