Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Health Care Across the Pond

From the Telegraph:
Patients with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn today.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn. As a result the scheme is causing a “national crisis” in patient care, the letter states.

Macabre news like this should help snuff out any lingering enthusiasm for a single-payer plan...should but won't. This (like all things to liberals) is about ideology, not about what actually works best.

No comments:

Post a Comment