Health Wonk Review: Pivoting to November edition

Brad Wright outdoes himself with this week's amazing collection of posts, all seamlessly woven together into a compelling, interesting narrative.

Kudos, Brad!

And don't forget to tune into David Harlow on Blab next Tuesday (1:00 PM Eastern). He and his posse will be discussing Brad's terrific HWR.

NSVNHS© Strikes Again

Seems like the demise of the Not So Vaunted National Health System© is accelerating:

"'Neglected' pensioner's cries of 'please help me' recorded by family on hidden dictaphone in hospital days before death"

The poor woman was being "treated" at Sandwell Hospital, and by "treated" we mean bruised and neglected by those ostensibly charged with her care. It seems that the mask has slipped on how these systems actually work: previously, the use of wait times as rationing mechanisms seemed to work just fine. Now, however, it appears that more hands-on (so to speak) methods are required.

What's interesting (or, more appropriately, disheartening) is that the Brits' use of "boarding" seems to be alive and well.

Perhaps I should check that phrasing....

[Hat Tip: NDH]

Sweden Privatizing?

Sweden has long been pointed to as an exemplar of how nationalized health care schemes models can work effectively. Never mind that (at least until recently) that was due primarily to the homogeneity of the population; it worked.

Or did it?

Turns out that "nearly [o]ne in ten Swedes now has private health insurance,” with rising policy demand extending to half a million Swedes and growing throughout the 9.5 million living in the country."

Interestingly, most of them enjoy what we call ESI, or Employer Sponsored Insurance, and the trend line seems to be accelerating:

So what do you suppose is fueling this upsurge?

As (almost) always: wait times. As we've noted on numerous occasions, all nationalized health care systems ration care, and most of that rationing is accomplished through the use of long wait times, aka attrition. Still doubting that?

Exhibit A:

"Swedish health authorities have come under criticism over the death of a woman whose repeated calls to emergency services were ignored because she was still able to talk."

That's from 4 long years ago. Doesn't look like SvenCare©'s had much improvement.

And Introducing the Non-Sterile NSVNHS©

This morning we noted the rather steep decline in the reputation (such as it is) of the British healthcare scheme. It now appears that there may be at least one reason that's thus far flown under the radar:

"Muslim nurses in the UK have now been granted the option of participating in medical operations without washing their hands."

This isn't the first time that the NSVNHS© has bowed to pressure from its Muslim providers:

"Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed for religious reasons to opt out of strict NHS dress codes introduced to prevent the spread of deadly hospital superbugs."

It's not exactly breaking news that clean hands and garb are key to stopping the spread of virii and the like. But it's interesting [ed: don't you mean frightening?] that the Brits are letting Political Correctness supersede basic medical safety.

On the other hand, dead patients don't complain, or continue to drain the already overburdened "system."

Introducing The NSVNHS©

That would be the Not So Vaunted National Health Service©.

And what, you may ask, prompts this new accreditation?

Well:

"UK now has one of the worst healthcare systems in the developed world"

Well, that's just according to some disgruntled blogger, right? Not any actual, respected authority.

Ummm....

"The verdict, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ... the quality of care in the UK is “poor to mediocre” across several key health areas"

Ouch!

Still, it's not like the scheme is scraping the bottom of the barrel on key metrics.

Wait, what?

"The UK came 21st out of 23 countries on cervical cancer survival, 20th out of 23 countries on breast and bowel cancer survival and 19th out of 31 countries on stroke."

Fortunately, a quick fix is easily applied.

Oh:

"Mark Pearson, OECD Deputy Director of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, said many medics were too rushed to improve the care they give."

But hey, it's free!

[Hat Tip: CoBlogger Mike F]

Frightening Numbers

This is actually scary:

 
Consider the implications.

DIAM Matters

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month. We're helping to kick it ff with this timely, moving story: