It's accounts like this one which, I suggest, should be a cautionary tale against any possibility of moving forward with State Healthcare plans.

The UK was the first in the world to launch State-run healthcare .. from way back in 1948. Now, if the principle of State-run healthcare is so very 'workable' and so very 'ideal' a model to have in place, then we Brits should, by now, have it running smoothly, well enough for there to be no possibility of it producing any healthcare tragedies of any great note.

But the opposite is, in fact, true.

This reports on the aftermath of a failing which was reported some time ago ..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#axzz2JnAP1jIg

Three managers from Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust are to face public disciplinary hearings over their failings during the worst-ever NHS hospital scandal.

It is understood they will be the first to face the prospect of formal action over appalling standards of care at the trust between 2005 and 2009.

Staff there have been blamed for the ‘unnecessary’ deaths of up to 1,200 people because they put targets and cost-cutting ahead of patients’ needs.

The most shocking examples included receptionists assessing emergency cases, patients forced to drink from vases and the seriously ill being left in filthy bedsheets.

Only one suspended nurse has so far suffered any formal sanction – despite 79 doctors and nurses being reported to regulators for investigation.

Now the General Medical Council has confirmed that three doctors working as managers and another doctor have been summoned to appear before a fitness to practise tribunal following an investigation into their actions.

The unnamed doctors face being struck off the medical register or having restrictions applied to their licenses.

However, critics have pointed out that many more managers and medical staff have been allowed to retire on lucrative pensions or find jobs elsewhere in the NHS.

Julie Bailey founded the Cure The NHS campaign group after her 86-year-old mother, Bella, died at Stafford Hospital in 2007 following a fall.

During her mother’s stay, Mrs Bailey grew so appalled by conditions at the hospital that she began feeding and washing other patients.

Mrs Bailey, who campaigned alongside former nurse and agony aunt Claire Rayner, said: ‘This is long overdue. The GMC is far too late and the process takes far too long.

'There’s no information about what allegations these doctors face.

'There were between 400 and 1,200 unnecessary deaths and doctors stood by and watched this happen. Why aren’t they all facing sanctions?

‘We want accountability for the hundreds of deaths at that hospital.’

It comes as an official inquiry into the scandal, led by Robert Francis QC, will publish its final report on Wednesday. It is expected to recommend major NHS reforms ....
Too little, too late ?

This is a study not only of just how badly a State health system can let its patients down, but also of inertia from the authorities responsible. And why ? Because, in a State system, unaccountability is rife .. in large part leading to the very conditions which allow for the complacency that causes such horrors.

Do you want such failures in America .. by abdicating control of healthcare administration to State-run bureaucracy ?

Obama, given the chance, would be delighted to oblige ...