Scene from the Soviet Union, or business as usual?

I was brought to a local  hospital emergency room due to shortness of breath at 6 p.m.  I was there until 4 a.m.  No explanation was given to those in the waiting room.  At around 10:30 p.m a young man who was accompanying his wife lost his patience and began to remonstrate loudly.

  Immediately, this young man was surrounded by 6 security guards and driven out of the building. I attempted to record this on my phone but one of the security guards made me stop.

  The rest of the patients either slept, purchased snacks at the snack machines and ate them, or stared aat their cell phones.

  At 4 a.m., a nurse came and got me.  She explained that there was a shortage of rooms and a shortage of nurses.  There were doctors waiting who were unable to see the patients because there was no room in which they could see them.  I complained, jokingly, that people could be found dead in this emergency room.  She admitted that this had actually happened.  She was not joking.

  I can't complain about the care I was given.  The doctors and nurses were very professional and thorough, except that they neglected to ask what medications I was already taking.  However, I had brought my medications with me and was allowed to take them, after the doctor had been consulted and permitted it.

  Imagine what this scene would be like if we were all on Medicare--better yet, imagine the scene in the UK, where patients are made to wait for life-saving surgery for months, or until they die of their diseases.

Send Michael Moore to this hospital

as a patient.

On Wednesday, the report from the Healthcare Commission into the C.diff outbreak in Kent found a catalogue of failings. The hospitals had filthy wards and vulnerable elderly patients were told to soil their beds because nurses were too busy to help them.

Targets and financial problems within the health service led to staff shortages and overcrowded wards which contributed to the spread of the infection, the report found.

Between April 2004 and September 2006, 1,176 patients contracted C.diff at the three hospitals and 345 died. Some patients with curable conditions died after contracting the bug.

The commission found the bug definitely or probably caused the deaths of 90 of them and was likely to have contribu ted to the deaths of another 255. In only 14 cases was it felt the bug had not been a factor in the death.

If he survives, he may change his mind about socialized medicine.

Want the government to handle health care?

This horror story might change your mind.