Many people who are pushing hard to get the Obamcare passed often refer to the cost of our medical care with that of Canada and England. What they do not discuss is the downside of having a bureaucratic government run medical plan.
The most glaring example of socialised medicine is the incumbent rationing that must be instituted to affect savings. There is a good example of the rationing of care going on in England that is revealed in this article found in today's edition of the London Telegraph.
Implementing the European Working Time Directive next Saturday, when the NHS is already under pressure with 100,000 new cases of swine flu being diagnosed in a week, is the 'probably the worst time in living memory to do this', the junior doctors' campaign group RemedyUK said.
Junior doctors are the last group of NHS staff to come into the Directive this Saturday by cutting their working week from 56 hours to 48.
NHS consultants need to work more nights, experts say, because the Working hours directive 'will put lives at risk in hospital'
Junior doctors 'pressurised to lie about long working hours to meet EU rules' Experts have warned that the NHS is not ready for the change and there will be gaps left in rotas putting patients at risk.
John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons said if swine flu turns into a major crisis, the Government should show leadership and suspend the Directive.
He said: “We could have a one, two or three-stage serious pandemic.
"If that happens everybody of course will work whatever hours are necessary to keep the patients alive in a crisis.
“I trust that if that happens the Government will not fudge it and they will actually say that the European Working Time Directive leaves no slack at all in the system and if there is a major crisis it should be suspended.”
Richard Marks, Head of Policy at Remedy, said: “Millions have been spent on staff call-centres using non-medical staff to diagnose and prescribe (for swine flu) but at the same time they are reducing doctors’ working week by one full day". The important point here is that in England they are using NON-Medical staff to do what is the job that doctors are trained to do, DIAGNOSE DISEASE!
"It’s probably the worst time in living memory to do this.”
Doctors are likely to be in short supply during a flu outbreak as they are in the frontline of exposure to the virus and are at increased risk of falling ill themselves and may also have sick children to care for during the peak of a pandemic.
RemedyUK has called for the introduction of the Directive to be delayed until the uncertainties over how the flu outbreak are resolved. The doctor group has to ask bureaucrats to do what they know is best for their potential patients. No decisions are allowed by the doctors!
Dr Matt Jameson Evans, chairman of Remedy, said: “Unfortunately we have a camel’s back situation and swine-flu is more of a sledge hammer than a straw. I do not know what the reference to a camels back situation has to do with the directive, but I do know that doctors are treating there patients like store owners not a medical professional. With apologise to the store owner!
"We already know most doctors are against EWTD, we just need the leadership to do the right thing here.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff can work longer hours when they need to. During national emergencies there are special provisions and flexibility within the regulations for emergency situations.
"Medical Directors have plans in place to ensure NHS organisations are able meet the needs of patients and that the hours doctors and other healthcare staff work are balanced over a period. Medical directors will carefully review the local situation as the current Pandemic Flu outbreak continues."
Dr Andy Thornley, Chairman of the BMA’s Junior Doctor Committee said: “Clearly pandemic flu is going to place additional pressure on an NHS that is trying to adapt to the introduction of the 48-hour week for junior doctors.
"The government need to be much clearer in communicating how it plans to deal with these additional pressures as it is unacceptable that so little information is trickling down to junior doctors.
"It is also important that the NHS works hard to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and inappropriate work so that junior doctors can do what they do best – treat their patients.
"Abandoning the Working Time Directive days before it’s due to be implemented would be inappropriate given that most of the extra work is currently being done by colleagues in general practice.”
This follows a law suit that was brought by the "Junior Doctors" against there Seniors doctors. Junior MD's won the lawsuit as this quote illustates: "RemedyUK called for the GMC to investigate the doctors who designed the shake-up of medical training which left thousands of doctors scrabbling for jobs in 2007.
The campaign group claimed the senior medics, including chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson, brought the profession into disrepute and they fell below the standard required of doctors in management.
Now RemedyUK has won the right to proceed to a Judicial Review of the decision not to investigate.
Sir Liam was the architect of the new selection system for medical training posts which doctors need in order to qualify as a consultant. The online application system, the Medical Training Application Service, gave weight to candidates 'creative writing skills' and there was little emphasis on medical experience. The computer system failed and was replaced, but critics said many exceptional doctors did not get the training jobs they deserved and some left to work abroad.
If Congress passes Obama Care, you can kiss all your relatives who are elderly good by! The only way these socialists will cut costs is to ration care, and the first ones to be targeted are the old and infirmed, you can bet on that!There has to be a better way to get medical care to those who are not covered because it is too expensive. And there are not 47 million Americans who qualify for that category as in many cases it is a matter of "needs versus wants"!
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