BigGovHealth Improve and Strengthen Health Care for all Americans

Quality of Care

Quality of Care

Canada’s health care fares poorly when compared to Western Europe

The Canadian Press By Neena Chowdhury
September 17, 2008
http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/canada/article/113405

Universal health care is something many Canadians cherish and want to fiercely protect, but a new study finds it lags far behind the standard of care that is commonplace in Western Europe.

UK Hospitals Falter in Heart Attack Care

TheMedGuru.com By Neharika Sabharwal
September 15, 2008
http://www.themedguru.com/articles/uk_hospitals…

The president of British Cardiac Society feels that there has been a good deal of improvement, but UK still lagged behind Europe and US. This was basically because United Kingdom has just about 630 cardiologists as compared to 24,000 in USA. Without basic manpower the service simply cannot be provided to the level it ought to.

Canada Ranks Near the Bottom of Developed Countries In Providing Public Access to New Drug Treatments, Says New International Study

CNW Group- Canada News Wire
September 15, 2008
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2008/…

A first of its kind comprehensive study by Wyatt Health Management shows that Canada ranks near the bottom of developed countries when it comes to providing access to new drug therapies for its most vulnerable citizens including seniors and low income families.

Universal health care not a panacea

Daily Herald
September 17, 2008
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=235214&src

Recently you published a letter from a lady in Elgin in support of universal health care. Her opening sentence is that every industrialized nation but the U.S. has a system that provided health care for all its citizens. While that may be true, that is not why we should or should not have government health care.

Canada’s health care lags far behind Europe: study

CTV.ca - The Canadian Press
September 17, 2008
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews…

Universal health care is something many Canadians cherish and want to fiercely protect, but a new study finds it lags far behind the standard of care that is commonplace in Western Europe.

Nice doesn’t have to be nasty

The Telegraph By Andrew Lansley
September 10, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservati…

In recent weeks our newspapers and television screens have been dominated by tragic stories of NHS patients being denied access to drugs which have the potential to extend their life. A large amount of anger has been directed towards the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) which is responsible for making these decisions.

NHS to Change form of health insurance as UK soars to the bottom of health league

ONLY Finance.com
September 9, 2008
http://www.onlyfinance.com/Health-Insurance-News/12754281-NHS-to-ch…

The NHS may switch to a form of health insurance to compete with other countries, a study has shown. The study, by health group Reform, revealed that the UK is performing poorly against a number of indicators.

Britain Considers Bigger Role for Private Health Insurance

Workforce Management
September 9, 2008
http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/75/97.php

In Britain, long the home of publicly funded health care, the health system may be taking on a more private-sector look, with employers potentially picking up more of the tab.

Healthcare postcode lottery means patients losing out on cancer treatments

Telegraph.co.ok By Kate Devlin
September 8, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/health/2700686…

The level of healthcare inequality across the country is disclosed in a detailed report which shows some areas are spending twice as much tackling heart disease and cancer as others.

Man Tells of Ear Wax Woes

By Dot Kirby
September 4, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7598394.stm

He lives in constant pain - and the health service told him he’d have to stay that way for at least three months.

Do politicians pay enough attention to the problems with Canada’s health care?

Leader Post
August 20, 2008
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/features/soundoffs/story.ht…

The outgoing president of the Canadian Medical Association blasted political parties at the federal level Tuesday for failing to address the country’s pressing health-care problems.

Incoming CMA head touts private-public health care mix

The Canadian Press
August 21, 2008
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080821…

The incoming leader of the association representing Canada’s doctors says private health care will play a key role in helping the country’s ailing public system.

Is UK’s Nice Angling For Influence On Drug Pricing?

Pharmalot (Blog)
By Ed Silverman
August 26th, 2008
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/08/is-uks-nice…

An unprecedented attack last week on pharmaceutical prices by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence chairman Michael Rawlins, signals a controversial new role for the UK health watchdog in the forthcoming overhaul of drugs pricing, PharmaTimes reports.

State-run medicine kills innovation

The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Opinion, By Peter Pitts
August 23, 2008
http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/localviews/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion…

Experimental cures are often the last hope for dying patients in the United Kingdom’s health system. Thanks to the British government, however, many sick Britons will soon have their last hopes dashed. Why? Pharmaceutical companies from around the world have been scaling back clinical research in the United Kingdom, largely because of government parsimony.

Letters: Health Care and Reality

The New York Times
By Peter Pitts
August 15th, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/opinion/lweb15krugman.html

To the Editor: Paul Krugman states that “in principle, it should be easy” for the Democrats to deliver on their promise to “provide every American access to affordable, comprehensive health care.” It sure hasn’t been easy for the countries that have tried. In Canada, according to the Fraser Institute, patients seeking specialized treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007. Approximately 875,000 Canadians are on waiting lists for treatment.

Drug fund lottery for rare cancers

The Financial Times
By Nicholas Timmins
August 11, 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e796ea86-672e-11dd-808f…

Some 800 patients a year are being refused funding for drugs that can tackle – but not cure – rare or advanced cancers, according to a survey by the Rarer Cancers Forum, a patient group.The survey also reveals the apparently random local process that decides both whether patients will receive drug treatment for their ­condition and how they can access it.Drug fund lottery for rare cancers.

‘Bullying, ignorant and patronising’: NICE attacked by experts over drug ban scandal for cancer patients

The Daily Mail
By Jenny Hope
August 11, 2008
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1043422/Bullying-ignorant-patronising…

The drugs-rationing body for the NHS has been accused of bullying, ignoring and patronising patients. The unprecedented attack follows the highly-controversial decision to ban drugs that can extend the life of kidney cancer victims. Experts asked to advise the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence have lodged complaints, describing the consultation as a sham.

British Agency Impugns Value Of Four Costly Cancer Drugs

The Wall Street Journal
By Jeanne Whalen
August 8, 2008
An agency that advises Britain’s health-care system has decided that a group of cancer drugs aren’t worth the money, a move that highlights a growing debate over how to balance the interests of patients with soaring drug costs.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121812494680320949.html

My baby Ellie is a victim of the NHS postcode lottery

Southern Daily Echo
August 7, 2008
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/display.var.2420107.0.my_baby_ellie_is_a_victim…

BABBLING away to her big sister, there is nothing to suggest that Ellie Wheatley is different to any other 11-month-old. But while everyone else can hear her endless baby chatter Ellie herself cannot, because she is one of the most profoundly deaf children in the country. A life-changing operation to be fitted with two cochlear implants is her best hope of being able to hear and with it to learn how to speak. But this week her local health trust ruled that she could only have one, a decision that her family says would be pointless given the severity of her condition.

Kidney cancer drugs judged too costly for 3,000 NHS patients

The Guardian
By John Carvel
August 7, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/aug/07/nhs.health…

Four new medicines that could prolong the life of more than 3,000 patients with advanced kidney cancer should not be funded by the NHS in England and Wales, the government’s advisers on the cost-effectiveness of drugs said last night. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) issued draft guidelines rejecting state funding of the drugs Sutent (sunitinib), Avastin (bevacizumab), Nexavar (sorafenib) and Torisel (temsirolimus). It accepted that they could delay the progression of advanced kidney cancer by up to six months, but said the cost to the NHS would be well above the accepted limits.

Uproar as NICE draft rejects four kidney cancer drugs

PharmaTimes
August 7, 2008
http://www.pharmatimes.com/WorldNews…

The UK’s drug cost-effectiveness watchdog’s preliminary decision to reject four kidney cancer treatments for use on the National Health Service has unsurprisingly caused outrage among charities and patients. Peter Littlejohns, clinical and public health director at NICE, said that “although these treatments are clinically effective, regrettably, the cost to the NHS is such that they are not a cost-effective use of resources”. He added that two of the manufacturers involved have developed proposals which may have the effect of reducing the cost of the drugs and “we will be happy to consider these proposals”.

Yet another case for NHS top-up payments

The Telegraph
By Janet Daley
August 7, 2008
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/janet_daley/blog…

Another day, another terrible story about cancer drugs being denied to NHS patients not because their medical effectivenss is in any doubt - there is no question that these drugs prolong the lives of patients - but because they are not cost effective.The ruthless logic of rationed healthcare could scarcely be made more explicit. And let’s be clear about this: it is perfectly legitimate for a tax-funded monopoly health system to martial its finite resources in ways that seem to offer the most benefit to the maximum number of people. So if a given amount of money will purchase, say, two extra years of life for a terminal cancer patient as opposed to providing several hundred hip transplants, thus relieving the suffering of many more people with decades of life before them, choosing the latter is quite justifiable. The question we need to ask is, why does the government insist that the resources must be limited to what tax payers can tolerate?

Lawsuit claims hospital lost part of man’s skull

The Galveston County Daily News
By Sara Foley
August 7, 2008
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso…

The emergency removal of part of Marvin Simmons’ skull saved his life when his brain was swelling during a stroke. The problem is that once it was removed, he never got it back. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in the 122nd District Court against the University of Texas Medical Branch on behalf of the 53-year-old Galveston man claims the hospital lost the 8-inch by 4-inch piece of skull and canceled three surgeries to replace it before admitting the mistake. In a statement, medical branch officials said they had not had an opportunity to review the lawsuit.

NHS hospitals report thousands of pest infestations

Times Online
By Nigel Hawkes
August 6, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health…

NHS hospitals have reported mice, rats, squirrels, bedbugs, fleas, cockroaches, ants, flies, silverfish and even foxes. Nearly 20,000 cases of pest infestations in NHS hospitals have been recorded over the past two years, the Conservatives have said. Mice, rats, squirrels, bedbugs, fleas, cockroaches, ants, flies, silverfish and even foxes have all been reported by hospitals responding to Conservative freedom of information requests. Responses from 127 trusts show that 70 per cent had to call out pest controllers 50 or more times between January 2006 and March 2008.

Millions of patients facing delays for dental treatment

The Telegraph
By Kate Devlin
August 6, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2510740/Millions-of-patients-facing…

Millions of fillings, root canals and other dental treatments will be delayed following a major shake up of NHS dentistry which made it more difficult to find a dentist. A new contract for dentists, brought in in 2006, has already left almost one million fewer patients receiving dental care. Official figures released by the Department of Health show that even more people could have trouble finding treatment over the next 12 months. They show that while more than 80 million treatments should be carried out in England over the next year, 3.7 million have not yet been provided for by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), who contract individual dentists to carry them out.

Family’s hospital outrage

The Telegraph
By Jonathan Evans
August 6, 2008
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/south-wales-news/pontypridd-llantrisant…

HEARTBROKEN relatives have spoken of their pain after an 82-year-old gran died of MRSA in hospital through a lack of care. The Royal Glamorgan Hospital near Llantrisant has paid £15,500 in compensation to the family of Betty Ennis, of Heol Johnson, Talbot Green following her death in November 2006 two months after her operation. Her husband Reginald Ennis and daughter Susan Beach told the Observer that after Mrs Ennis had her leg amputated to remove a blocked artery, they were left to feed her and ensure she had taken the correct medication.

MD uses lottery to cull patients

The National Post
By Tom Blackwell
August 6, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html…

In the latest jarring illustration of the country’s doctor shortage, a family physician in Northern Ontario has used a lottery to determine which patients would be ejected from his overloaded practice. Dr. Ken Runciman says he reluctantly eliminated about 100 patients in two separate draws to avoid having to provide assembly-line service or extend already onerous work hours, and admits the move has divided the community of Powassan.Yet it was not the first time such methods have been employed to determine medical service.

In Canada, Doctors Use Lottery to Drop Patients

The Wall Street Journal
By Jacob Goldstein
August 6, 2008
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/06/in-canada-doctors…

Canada’s medical system is radically different from ours, but there’s at least one thing we have in common: a shortage of primary care doctors. Now comes word from up north that a few overwhelmed primary care docs are using lotteries to kick patients out of their practices, while others are drawing names to choose new patients. One family physician got rid of about 100 patients in two separate draws, Canada’s National Post reports. Ken Runciman, based in Powassan, Ontario, recently bought the 2,000-patient practice, which he says was busier than he’d been led to believe. He concluded that keeping all the patients wouldn’t have allowed him to spend enough time with each.

St. Mary’s twice sent me away: pregnant woman gives birth in bathroom at home

The Gazette
By Alan Hustak
August 5, 2005
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html…

St. Mary’s Hospital Centre will look into complaints that a 21-year-old pregnant woman was twice refused admission over the weekend, forcing her to give birth in the bathroom of her St. Michel apartment. Tracy Alphonse said she was turned away from the hospital Friday even though her doctor warned her a Caesarean section might be required. When she returned to the hospital by ambulance Saturday after her water broke, she was again sent home by a nurse on duty who told her not to be overly concerned, Alphonse said. Several hours after she went back to her apartment, she delivered the 6-pound, 3-ounce girl in her bathroom with the help of her boyfriend.

Donor buys cancer drug for victim of NHS postcode lottery

The Telegraph
By Laura Clout
August 5, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2506623/Donor-buys-cancer-drug…

An anonymous donor has paid for a powerful cancer drug for a woman who had been told she could not receive it on the NHS. Jean Murphy, 63, who has terminal kidney cancer, last week lost a three-month battle for Salford Primary Care Trust to fund her treatment with an experimental drug which doctors believe would give her extra months to live. But this week Mrs Murphy’s solicitors received £10,000 from a female donor, and she is set to begin treatment within days. Mrs Murphy, who is the sole carer of her disabled husband, will still need to find the money for the rest of the treatment. She said: “For once I am gobsmacked by this generosity, I can’t thank them enough. After everything we have been through I was devastated but this has completely restored my faith in people.”

When I was sick all the time, docs said I was having a baby at 15 . . . but the truth was far more terrifying

Glasgow Evening Times
By Sarah Swain
August 5, 2008
http://news.google.com/news?q=NHS+patient+refuse…

ELAINE DAVIDSON was 15 when doctors said she must be pregnant. She was suffering severe bouts of sickness and a constant headache and doctors made her take repeated pregnancy tests. But her mum Maureen refused to believe them and, after almost four months, doctors finally sent Elaine to Glasgow Royal Infirmary for further tests. There, they discovered what was wrong - she had a brain tumour the size of a golf ball. Elaine, who is now 17, became ill in June 2006, just after finishing her Standard grades at Bannerman High School. She was constantly being sick and had a sensitivity to light. Her mum says she took her to Baillieston Health Centre almost a dozen times, but was told her daughter had a migraine and was sent away.

Blind, immobilised, diabetic - but the NHS doesn’t care

The Observer
By Jon Robins
August 3, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/aug/03/health

Eileen Puc has lived in a nursing home in Cardiff for the past three years after a stroke - her second - left her immobile, doubly incontinent, and only able to eat puréed food. Eileen has severe diabetes and needs four insulin injections a day. She is also registered blind. Her family is fighting to prove that she has ‘health needs’ to qualify for fully funded NHS continuing care to cover the £1,825 that the home charges every month. ‘My question is: how ill do you have to be to qualify for NHS funding?’ asks her 58-year-old brother-in-law, Vivien Roberts. ‘We don’t know the answer to that. If Eileen doesn’t qualify, you’re left thinking: who would?’ Following an admission to the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend in June 2005, the family was told that Eileen could not go home because she needed 24-hour nursing care and that, because of her savings, she would have to pay her own way. Her husband of 55 years, Ivan, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease six years ago and has moved into Eileen’s nursiing home, where they share a room

Doctors fail to spot toddler’s broken collar bone

The Telegraph
By Tom Peterkin
August 1, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2484897/Doctors-fail-to-spot…

Charlie Robinson, aged 18 months was taken to hospital three times screaming with pain, but was given the all-clear by two doctors, a trainee doctor and a nurse before the fracture was finally spotted by a specialist. The toddler was taken to the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan after when he was injured accidentally falling off his couch at the family home in Helvellyn Road in Wigan, Greater Manchester. To begin with his injuries were described by a female doctor as a bruised chest and pulled arm. Five days later Charlie was still in pain and his parents Paula and David took him back to the hospital where a doctor and trainee doctor performed an x-ray examination. Mr and Mrs Robinson were assured there were no breaks or fractures. The medics suggested their child had suffered tissue damage. To their alarm, a large lump began to protrude from the infant’s shoulder causing them to return to the hospital a third time two days later.

Click Here to Return to Media Clips