Smiling for the camera, these are staff at the hospital where a dying man was not seen for six hours – posing for a calendar in which they mock waiting times. Stewart Fleming, 37, was left doubled up in agony despite arriving in casualty with a letter from his GP saying he needed immediate attention. After he was finally seen on December 15, he rapidly deteriorated. He died two days after Christmas from a viral illness.
However, she added: ‘Their main job is to be a hospital.’ The calendar was launched at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent on December 17, and features doctors and nurses dressed up as stars from Fawlty Towers, Baywatch, Open All Hours and Pirates of the Caribbean. In one picture a nurse and two medics pose next to a sign that reads: ‘Waiting time 26.5 seconds!’. In another, a member of staff in a swimsuit clutches a first aid kit and pretends to help a drowning man in a hospital bath. The Medway hospital has previously come under the spotlight for a string of blunders. These include the body of a dead patient being left undiscovered on a toilet for 12 hours, and the case of 31-yearold Peter Cura, who died after Medway medics failed to spot his cancer despite 37 visits to the hospital.
So much for socialized medicine.
ANOTHER glowing endorsement for Gov run health care!
People die in hospitals everyday while staff eat, shit, sleep, make phone calls, celebrate birthdays and promotions, etc.
“While there is no suggestion any of the staff involved in the shooting of the calendar have behaved improperly,”
But I see the appeal. Why not add in that Obama was vacationing in Hawaii while this Holocaust occurred?
I love how you guys equate this story with socialized health care. It just cracks me up.
# 4 QB said, “I love how you guys equate this story with socialized health care. It just cracks me up.”
I know. It’s like equating the SS atrocities with Nazism.
In the U.S., the man would have gotten top flight health care — IF he could afford it. The average joe would have been in the same situation as this poor guy.
“Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite.”
— John Kenneth Galbraith
Why is it that a virus that has killed a man in less than 72 hours is still a mystery? What was it?
Gosh.. I remember some recent cases in the wonderful capitalist US medical system where patients died in the waiting room and were left there for hours because no one would bother to see them. If I recall, the cleaning crew actually cleaned around a dead woman laying on the floor of the waiting room.
Pot, meet black kettle.
#9 Ron:
The idea is that socialized health care is supposed to be *better* than market care.
The anecdotes coming from Britain seem worse than anything here in the States, IMO.
In Britain, you get shitty care even if you have the money to pay for something better. How frustrating. It’s like they took the quality of care a bum coming off the street would get, then forced it on everyone so that no one could feel bad about getting worse care than the next guy.
When idealists say everyone should get the same quality of care, they mean that everyone should get the best care. That’s impossible. It ends up that everyone gets the worst care.
No thanks.
#5 Hyperbole much?
Actually we agree. I’ll keep my Canadian “socialized” universal health care, even with all it’s problems, and you can keep your for profit system and all it’s problems.
One is not necessarily better than the other, but having been born, raised and continuing to live here in Canada, and watching many Canadians I know who though they now live in the U.S., make the bi-annual trip home to stay for a week or two so they DON’T lose the Canadian health care coverage,I’ll take my flawed system or yours. You can use that anecdote as you see fit.
#10–brm==idiots think and form conclusions based on anecdotes.
Statistics show USA spending more on healthcare by multiple factors and being (from memory) 15th on the list of quality outcomes.
People posting like you do always have coverage. Good for you==now stop being stupidly self centered.
The guy dies 12 days after being admitted to the Hospital and for some reason the Hospital is being blamed because they were also producing a money raising venture for their cancer clinic? Typical right wing nut observation and conclusion.
Is there anyone here that could guarantee that he would have survived in an American hospital? Of course, Greg House could have cured him if he wasn’t too busy staring at Cuddy’s tits or popping another Vicodin.
This was a hospital. People die in hospitals.
Two qualms with the article. The first is that the title here makes it sound like the reason it took twelve hours to admit him is that they were taking photos for this calender. As far as I can tell from the article, completely not true. The second is the use of “Horrendous Tales from the American Medical Establishment” tag over the article which somehow seems not appropriate considering that this happened in Britain.
I don’t think this so call article is telling the whole story. I have work in an Oz hospital and I can tell you He was waiting for a “bed”, hell I know of cases of people sitting around for over 24 hours in A&E waiting! It all comes down to money and where government use it.
I am NOT picky about how women look but that woman in the red bathing suit is not calendar material.
>> Paddy-O said,
>> ANOTHER glowing endorsement for Gov run health care!
It’s still better than GOP health care, where millions don’t get any care at all, no matter how long they wait.
# 17 Greg Allen said, “It’s still better than GOP health care, ”
Really? The “GOP” has no plan to inject gov’t into that private sector. Show me the plan.
#18–Paddy===ZERO. THATS the gop plan as Greg plainly stated. Their plan is “the status quo”/no change. 50 Million People UNCOVERED leaving them to NO PREVENTATIVE CARE resulting in more expensive/less effective catch as catch can care in the Emergency Room. Leaving the USA spending by far more than any other nation and getting far worse results.
Take it up a notch.
bobbo and Greg Allen: did you notice how he immediately Nazism as paradigm example to imply guilt by association. I don’t mind rational arguments about topics – you ain’t going to get one there.
As far as I can see the US is ruining it’s competitiveness by foisting it’s overly expensive health care costs onto business. For example, it’s wiping out your manufacturing sector.