Britain’s National Health Service has been rocked by the discovery that it is killing patients needlessly by the thousands . How many ? As many as 40,000 annually .One in Ten patients are harmed in Brit Hospitals .
40,000 die every year after hospital blunders, MPs are told - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/3536981/40000-die-every-year-after-hospital-blunders-MPs-are-told.html)

So what did the NHS do about it ? Well ,they spend 15 millions Pounds to prosecute 600 whistleblowers who exposed the outrage.
NHS spends £15million (the same as 750 nurses' salaries) on gagging 600 whistleblowers | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2282600/NHS-spends-15million-750-nurses-salaries-gagging-600-whistleblowers.html)

In Mid-Staffordshire hospital ;an allegedly elite hospital there may have been as many as 1,200 patients who died due to negligence .
Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4lySJlm1EnM)

Gitmo is a country club by comparison. The report is blunt and stomach turning . Thousands of elderly Brits were left to starve, die of thirst, lie in their human waste for extended periods,left neglected and unmedicated or cast out of the wards.

The NHS is a classic nameless faceless unaccountable bureaucracy run by a government life timer named Sir David Nicholson. The NHS is a classic death panel. It is the crowning achievement of the Fabians .It is the "envy of the world "

It is probably the largest institution in England. Larger by far than the British Army . What Obamacare is going to bring us is the NHS on steroids.

I wonder where they get there numbers from? There are 64 million people in the UK. And they are saying 40,000 die a year? Their figure doesn't sound right.

I knew about the Staffordshire hospital, not surprisingly it seems to go way beyond that. Got to meet all those efficiency targets and all that or "heads will roll (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/current-events/socialized-medication-718785-5.html#post3363766)", followed by hush money apparently.

I'd still rather take my chances on a private healthcare system than entrust my care to those nameless, faceless, entrenched bureaucrats.

Negligence happens even in the best of systems, we get horror stories here too, not because the system is tainted by government administration but because individuals are negligent, or uncaring or just plain exhausted. Do we also get problems in our private hospital system, yes.

Your system is about as far from the NHS as you can get so scaremongering will get you nowhere Tom, but you have to face it, the poor need care too and it is up to your government to see that it is delivered and if you have to pay a little to cover that off...

negligence happens even in the best of systems, we get horror stories here too, not because the system is tainted by government administration but because individuals are negligent, or uncaring or just plain exhausted. Do we also get problems in our private hospital system, yes.

Your system is about as far from the NHS as you can get so scaremongering will get you nowhere Tom, but you have to face it, the poor need care too and it is up to your government to see that it is delivered and if you have to pay a little to cover that off........................

Cut backs in hospital and nursing home staff are the culprit as well. Too much responsibility on the shoulders of those left to deal with the care of too many elder people entering the healthcare system in the western world.

Not enough nurses, aids, and PSWs to go around.

My agency keeps seniors out of nursing homes and allows them to stay in their own homes. This is in Canada. The UK has the same system. I don't know about Australia.

negligence happens even in the best of systems, we get horror stories here too, not because the system is tainted by government administration but because individuals are negligent, or uncaring or just plain exhausted. Do we also get problems in our private hospital system, yes.

Your system is about as far from the NHS as you can get so scaremongering will get you nowhere Tom, but you have to face it, the poor need care too and it is up to your government to see that it is delivered and if you have to pay a little to cover that off........................

No one disputes negligence happens, but this is a systematic problem.

Cut backs in hospital and nursing home staff are the culprit as well. Too much responsibility on the shoulders of those left to deal with the care of too many elder people entering the healthcare system in the western world.

Not enough nurses, aids, and PSWs to go around.

My agency keeps seniors out of nursing homes and allows them to stay in their own homes. This is in Canada. The UK has the same system. I don't know about Australia.

Yes austerity in all its forms always brings problems and we are not immune from this here in Australia despite what appears to be a booming economy. Our State governments, who administer the public hospital systems, are bankrupt, after years of Labor misadministration, and the impact has fallen on hospitals with the Federal government threatening to directly fund hospitals. The Government answer has been to encourage membership of health funds however unlike the US this is voluntary but supported by tax incentives

My personal view is that a nursing home could be a death sentence, that system is tainted by private enterprise

Here State run nursing homes are a horror story . Private ones are much better . Your socialized systems tries to find the lowest common denominator ;and then you call it fair.

here State run nursing homes are a horror story . Private ones are much better . Your socialized systems tries to find the lowest common denominator ;and then you call it fair.

Surprise, surprise, we don't have state run nursing homes, we do have a system that is subsidised by government but nursing homes are largely private enterprise which may be a reason why we hear horror stories.

To correct your misimpression Tom, our system is based on government regulating fees and overseeing standards, the rest is private enterprise excepting public hospitals which are a state owned enterprise and the reason for that is the private sector will not make the investment. What we do have is a state "federal" run "insurance" scheme where the populace pay a levy on income and the government provide a regulated benefit for each procedure. This benefit is sufficient for a high proportion of doctors to provide service without copayment. The aspect you would not like is the more you earn the more you pay and if you don't earn you get free access. Public hospitals are generally free. What we don't have is a multiplicity of schemes

here State run nursing homes are a horror story . Private ones are much better . Your socialized systems tries to find the lowest common denominator ;and then you call it fair.

Equal suffering for all (except the elite).

Nursing homes in Ontario are government subsidized, not by much, but enough to cover the monthly cost, plus the old age security, canada pension plan and/or any pension plan that is in place. Private run nursing homes are on their way out because they can't afford to run because of the nursing, PSW cost to give proper care to residents and of course the day to day running expense.

This may seem like chicken feed to what you bunch are talking about, but it is the basis of what we have to offer the elderly if no one else is available to care for them.

Of course there is what we call the sandwich generation meaning, that the elderly parent has been taken into the home, two working parents with children, etc. therefore the elder is 'sandwiched' between the children and the parents. There are big tax breaks for caregivers in Ontario though.

We do what we can, I work in the healthcare sector in the community, and can only hope it is enough.

I have worked in nursing homes, trained in a few, and have never ever seen negligence, substandard care in any one of them.

It is probably similar here the government pay a basic benefit and if the person is on a pension then a lot of that will be absorbed in the cost of care, but since we have a generous medical system there isn't a lot they need, the real question lies around the standard of care as the staff are not well paid and so this end of the market doesn't attract the best and brightest