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"Appalling Suffering” in British Hospitals

British hospital report should wake up America



In an article published in New York Times International on February 7th 2013, Sarah Lyall reports “Appalling Suffering” in British Hospitals. This should be a wake-up call to all Americans to stop the insanity of Obama’s destruction of the American system, which is already in a disgraceful state of degradation.
Shockingly bad care and inhumane treatment at one hospital led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths and stripped countless patients of their dignity and self-respect, according to a government report which examined conditions at Stafford Hospital. The report cites example after example of horrific treatment: patients left unwashed and lying in their own urine and excrement; patients left so thirsty that they drank water from vases; patients denied medication, pain relief and food by callous and overworked staff members; patients who contracted infections due to filthy conditions; and patients sent home to die after being given the wrong diagnoses. This is hardly the picture we have of British Hospitals from movies made there in the 60s and 70s. In those films hospitals are places where doctors and nurses are dedicated and patients almost always recover in clean and pleasant surroundings. My own experience of British hospitals included a one week stay in a hospital in London, at seven years old, for surgery when my tongue was almost severed due to a fall and another of two or three days when I had an ingrown toenail removed. Each experience, as far as I remember them was fairly pleasant – except for the food. But I would rather die than enter a British Hospital today.

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What caused the British health care system to fall so completely from one of the best in the world, to one that is actually dangerous to patient health and life? In a utopian society every citizen should have free health care from cradle to grave with the government paying all the bills. But that is only a dream that is impossible to achieve. The Brits tried this more than once. Until the early 20th century healthcare was reserved for the wealthy. The poorer people had to suffer and die without any substantial treatment unless they were lucky enough to be accepted by a teaching hospital and willing to be what might call a guinea pig for experimentation by doctors. In 1911, British Member of Parliament (later to become Prime Minister) David Lloyd George introduced the National Insurance Act in which a small amount was deducted from employees’ salaries and in return they were entitled to free healthcare, however nothing was done for the unemployed. The present “National Health Service” was inaugurated following World War Two when in 1946 and 1947 a near-socialist state promised to provide everything from unemployment compensation to total health care. In a country united by the rigors and privations of Hitler’s War this seemed an objective that could actually be attained. The whole country (or most of it) came together to take care of each other’s needs. But soon reality set in and we realized that there were those who would take advantage of the generosity of the government and their fellow-citizens. I remember little of those early days of socialist utopia and only became aware of what was happening in the fifties and sixties. During those years, I saw crippling strikes by the Unions and men who took advantage in every way possible. The labor laws allowed people to draw salaries while putting in little or no effort. Workers who were fired for lack of interest in work were immediately paid not to work and productivity ground to a halt. Those who did work found they could have paid vacations simply by crowding into Doctor’s offices and receiving a paper saying they needed time off for a variety of symptoms. This put pressure on the Doctors and hospitals so that quality inevitably suffered. The only way that kind of system has a ghost of a chance of working is in the Soviet or Chinese system where those who did not work voluntarily were sent to work camps from which they rarely came home. This was all bad enough but to add to the catastrophe the government decreed that anyone in British Commonwealth countries had to be accepted to live and work in the United Kingdom. Planeloads of Commonwealth residents now arrived in London from the Caribbean, the Indian sub-continent and several countries of Africa. Nobody was refused and the massive influx of immigrants from almost every race known to man spread out all over the British Isles and began using the already meager resources of the Health Service and flooding the Social security offices to receive unemployment payments. Soon Doctors were so inundated with people who refused to work and lived off the government that they simply quit and moved to other countries. Hospitals were forced to accept Doctors and Nurses with little training from other countries and the quality of health care sank into the dismal abyss that it is today. In the late sixties my father had a hip replacement. He survived the operation but died of pneumonia brought on by the total neglect of the nursing staff. By that time I had already moved to the United States. People ask me why I went to America and the only answer I can give them is that I saw the appalling lack of interest by my fellow Englishmen because they believed the government would take care of them and they would never have to work a day in their lives. I had a lot of initiate and enthusiasm, and I determined to make my own life in the United States as I saw it as a land in which hard work and ambition would bring opportunity for a better life. But I had to wait a few years because the American quota system in those days (as always) favored anyone but the British people who founded America. When I last visited the U.K it was hard to find the England that I remembered. It was impossible to recognize this as the proud land of Winston Churchill. The spirit that held out against Hitler until America came to help was gone. And it all started with a socialist government that promised the people healthcare and unemployment insurance while filling the country with immigrants. It is a wonderful concept to take care of everyone equally and offer free healthcare from cradle to the grave. But to expect it to work when lazy people take advantage and immigrants crowd out the system is utter stupidity. Obama demands total health care and opens the door wide to Illegal Immigrants. The inevitable result is that we will all be brought down to despair.


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David Rushton -- Bio and Archives

David Rushton was born in London where his parents were staunch conservatives. He immigrated to the United States in the sixties and formed a patriotic organization advocating conservative principles which include rallies and marches. He had his own radio talk show for many years and was also a guest on many radio and Television talk shows.

In the last few years David wrote several books about the dangers of radical Islam and spoke on this subject in some of the largest Conservative Churches in the United States.

He now resides with his wife Marcia in Costa Rica.


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