The future

[jimpeel]

Get ready for your future if Obamacare passes.

SOURCE

NHS maternity services in meltdown: A former midwife reveals how understaffed wards are sinking into chaos

By Verena Burns
Last updated at 8:39 AM on 16th December 2009

Clutching her husband's hand and with agony and exhaustion etched on her face, a young woman struggled into a room in the maternity unit where I worked.

She was in the early stages of labour with her first baby, she was terrified, in excruciating pain and desperate for any crumb of support.

Helpless beside her, her overnight bag in his hand, her poor husband looked equally traumatised.

My heart went out to them. But I knew there was little I could do. With five other pregnant women to care for at the same time, all with hugely different and complex problems, I was rushed off my feet and didn't have the time to look after her properly, to allay her fears or to hear about how she wanted the birth to unfold.

I longed to sit with this poor young woman, calm her and remind her gently to breathe deeply through each contraction.

Just half an hour of my time could have made all the difference. Instead, I put on my cheeriest smile and followed hospital procedure. 'Would you like a painkiller?' I asked.

Ten hours later, after she had been drugged to the eyeballs to dull the pain, I heard she'd given birth.

Her baby was healthy, but I knew I'd let her down.

As I watched her being wheeled into the ward, I felt eaten up with guilt. She'd effectively been ignored from the moment she turned up until the moment she gave birth.

Plonked on an antenatal ward until her time came, with no one to reassure her during what was most likely the most terrifying moment of her life.

No woman should have to give birth in these conditions - let alone in a modern hospital with professional staff at hand.


More...

 

[ResearchMonkey]

It's just good for the planet.

 

[2minkey]

the sky is falling.

 

[catocom]

the sky is falling.

*grabs umbrella

 

[Mirlyn]

The UK has government-owned healthcare, not the same as what is being debated.

I believe it'd be closer to (though still not the same as) the single-payer system in Canada.

 

[Winky]

The dim future that awaits.

We should be more like Canada and Britain.

 

[Gonz]

No woman should have to give birth in these conditions

Lord knows after 5000 generations, you'd think we'd learn that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to plop one out. Oh, sorry, that's what modern medicine has done.

 

[Cerise]

Aunteee Em, Aunteee Em!!

 

[jimpeel]

If Obamacare is instituted, every aspect of your life will be tied to the cost of healthcare. This is but one example. I wonder where this will lead?

SOURCE

Britain's Drinking Culture Costs Health Care System Over $4B a Year

Friday, January 01, 2010

YANGON, Myanma — Britain's heavy drinking culture is placing an "unsustainable burden" on the healthcare system — costing the NHS over $4 billion a year, according to a report.

The cost of treating the effects of excessive boozing has doubled in the past five years, research by the NHS Confederation and Royal College of Physicians revealed.

The report called for improvements to systems to identify, assess and treat patients with alcohol problems. But it also said a wider change in society's attitudes towards drink was needed. (Demonize the drinkers - j)

The bulk of the financial burden is falling on hospitals and ambulance services, which are forced to deal with people who get into difficulties after drinking too much.

But there is also a cost in long-term health conditions caused by boozing over many years.

Steve Barnett, chief executive of the Confederation which represents NHS managers, said alcohol was putting growing pressure on staff and services.

"With only one in 18 people dependent on alcohol receiving treatment... we know that more needs to be done to help identify and treat patients," he said.

"This report shows that not only are we drinking too much, but that the cost to our health services is increasing.

"The NHS can play a part in ensuring that treatment is provided… but a reappraisal of social attitudes to drinking is also well overdue." (They could start with indoctrination of schoolchildren - j)


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