Sounds like a delightful place to get medical attention

Basildon University Hospital in Essex, England, not just a National Health Service facility but one that is "run by one of the supposedly 'elite' foundation trusts, which have greater freedom to manage their finances", apparently isn't doing such a good job at either medicine or finances:

"Appalling nursing care... contributed to a mortality rate that was more than a third higher than the national average.

At least 70 people may have died who should have been saved."

Here's just a few of the gory details of what was found at this shining bastion of "professional, competent, efficient and cost-reducing" government-operated socialized medicine, and pretty much the exact type of abattoir that the likes of Obama, Reid and Pelosi would force the American peasant (but not elites such as them, of course) to patronize:

"Unannounced visits by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission found blood spattered on curtains and chairs in the A&E ward, a catheter bag on the floor, poorly-trained nurses and patients treated on trolleys.

A commode was soiled under the seat, nurses were failing to feed frail elderly people and patients had pressure sores.

There was no paediatric nurse for most of the time so children were not getting the best care.

The mortality rate in the A&E ward was 6.1 per cent in 2008, more than a third higher than the national average of 4.4 per cent."

...

"Management of the A&E department was poor, with problems including lack of leadership, poor environment and huge delays.

There was no system to ensure staff could observe patients in the waiting room, meaning they could not spot if a patient's condition deteriorated.

Patients had little privacy, with curtains separating cubicles. Some were cared for on trolleys around the edge of the major injuries area and, in busier times, in the centre.

Arrangements for children were also criticised. There were no special areas for children in the major injuries area.

There were few nurses with psychiatric training and no consultant with a paediatric speciality.

The ward spent more time without a paediatric nurse than with one.

Basic nursing care was also ' inconsistent'. Complaints from patients showed nurses failed to monitor, feed and give drugs correctly.

Up to 20 patients in 1,000 had evidence of pressure sores - as against 11 per 1,000 nationally.

Local care homes repeatedly expressed concerns about residents coming back with pressure sores.

It was unclear who was in charge of the nurses, and those meant to be in charge lacked the 'professional maturity' required.

Inspectors also found that the trust was not effectively decontaminating reusable equipment or maintaining a clean and appropriate environment in the A&E department.

They found 11 out of 12 trolley mattresses were stained and two had a 'foul odour'.

It says: 'Nurses we spoke to were not aware that mattresses could be opened and checked.'

Blood pressure cuffs and suction machines for clearing airways were dirty and dusty.

Half the curtains that separated cubicles were soiled, some with blood - and the system for changing them was not working."

What an utter hellhole.

Frighteningly, the very same oversight body that made this spot check had rated the hospital as "good" in cleanliness only last year. Only last month's unannounced inspection managed to uncover these systemic problems, according to the story. If that weren't enough, not one management person there seemingly has yet to lose their job over this horrific dereliction of their duties, despite a massive outcry from the local peasants over the bosses' complete incompetence. They're government employees, after all, and everyone knows how hard it is to fire them.

This sorry excuse for a hospital is so terrible and so emblematic of the NHS as a whole that Daniel Martin, the author of the article, can't help but let a little editorializing slip into his coverage:

"It is the latest example of patients paying the ultimate price for Labour's failure to stamp out Third World conditions in the NHS - despite trebling taxpayer funding over the past decade."

Hmm. Pouring dollar after taxpayer dollar into a bottomless health care Ponzi scheme, and getting worse than abysmal results. Why can't our leaders learn from the failed policies of countries such as Britain and Canada, instead of insisting that we dive right in and repeat those nations' expensive errors?

This exact sort of crappy (pun intended) treatment will be what everyone in America will be forced to live with, if the liberal Democrats currently in Congress and the White House get their way and ram their health care "reform" bill through without our stopping it in its tracks.

Still willing to sit by and let that happen?

Please keep calling your legislators in opposition to this "scheme".