This used to be the state of Britain in the 1970s; a reference to the relative economic decline that accompanied the imperial scuttle. Now, we should use the term in another sense: the transition of the National Health Service from modernity to the Middle Ages.
If you enter a National Health Service hospital, there is a high risk of contracting an infection caused by a dugs resistant bacteria called MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which the tabloids have dubbed “superbug”. There are numerous stories of patients, who have no choice but to use state provision, due to its monopolistic powers, and have contracted this infection as a consequence. There is one poor unfortunate who has been MRSA positive eight times.
A grandmother who has contracted the MRSA superbug eight times is refusing to return to hospital for a vital operation.
Doctors warned Marjorie Evans, 69, she could die or be bedridden for the rest of her life if she is hit by the infection again. She plans to travel abroad for her hip replacement rather than trust a British hospital. Mrs Evans has caught MRSA during inpatient stays at Morriston Hospital in Swansea since 1992.
One of the major causes of these infections is the inability of NHS hospitals to maintain minimum levels of cleanliness, such as insisting all visitors wash their hands. Once drugs-resistant bacteria have taken hold, they are difficult to eradicate. However, there is an alternative, the private sector:
BMI Healthcare is one of the biggest private hospital groups in the UK, with 47 hospitals. During the course of a year, the group has a quarter of a million in-patients and three-quarters of a million out-patient visits. How many patients in BMI hospitals have acquired MRSA in the blood? None. In fact, over the years, the company has “never” had such a case.
If you do come to Britain, avoid the NHS. For if they do manage to kill you, a task they achieve with ease, you may still not be given last rites as the religious affiliation of your dying husk cannot be disclosed under the Data Protection Act.
The Hospital Chaplaincies Council has criticised several NHS Trusts for their “hysterical” refusal to disclose the religious backgrounds of their patients. The trusts claim that such information is “too sensitive” to share with chaplains.
MRSA is not confined to hospitals, it is out there in public., but the tests for MRSA are done almost entirely on in-patients.
Hence if you have MRSA but go into hospital because the cat bit your ass, you appear to have contracted MRSA while getting treatment for a bitten ass.
Well – off private hospital elective surgical customers having a lower incidence of MRSA than the poor wretches depending upon the NHS is not a huge suprise.
True,but having MRSA in hospitals makes it even worse because a patient may contract a different strain of MRSA that is even more resistant to antibiotics.VRE with MRSA is damn headache to contend,it makes us health professionals damn paranoid and it doesn’t matter if your hospital is top notch or not,private or public.
I would have thought it rather difficult to catch MRSA in NHS hospitals. Wouldn’t there be a much higher likelihood of perishing and fossilizing in the foyer during an interminable wait than ever making it to a hospital bed and it’s embedded superbugs?
Nosocomial infections of multiresistant bacterial strains are exactly the product of socialized medicine. With all this drive towards centralizing healthcare into big hospitals wherein it is the exuberant use of antibiotics and severe hygiene prescriptions (and not the contrary) that resulted in the survival of the fittest (and deadliest) bacteria, it is, paradoxically, in these clean places of healing one can contract the most deadly diseases imaginable. Only after this great initial zeal of building socialized medicine later comes the inevitable laxness and institutional decay of all institutional socialism, which you have described. Nevertheless it is the cleanliness mixed with filth that is most likely behind this MRSA epidemic.
lemuel
My mother suffers from terrible arthritis in her knees, which makes walking a dreadful trial. She has already had one knee replaced, singularly unsuccessfully. Now, the regional health authority has offered to replace both knees at once with a new joint variety. She and my father have come to the decision that they will decline the offer. Quite apart from the risks associated with a general anaesthetic, there is the problem of post-operative MRSA. They can’t afford the drain on their capital that private provision would entail. By comparison, I pay $280 per year for around $25,000 coverage in a network of private hospitals that equal anything in the States and make NHS hospitals look like something out of the Crimean War. A chest X-Ray costs $25, an MRI costs $400, an emergency appendectomy costs around $800 (oh, and no ‘waiting lists’, natch). Of course we’re talking about a ‘Third World’ economy, where the poor impoverished masses only have a life expectancy two years higher than the EU average.
When I contemplate the state of healthcare in the UK, I feel very close to the point that H. L. Mencken identified, where it is necessary to hoist the black flag and start slitting throats. I’d start with UNISON and the bulk of the Parliamentary Labour Party. I suppose Britons can at least console themselves with the fact that it’s not quite as bad as Canada, where the Marxist-Leninist Health Minister has vowed to eliminate all private provision. You’d be amazed at how many Canucks I meet in the pub who’ve come down for two weeks’ holiday plus having their teeth fixed for 20% of what ‘free’ dental care costs in Canada. As P. J. O’Rourke (PBUH) said of HillaryCare, if you think healthcare’s expensive now, wait until it’s free.
This is slightly misleading. The main cause of the spread has nothing to with visitors not washing their hands – it is the nursing staff in many hospitals who fail to maintain even rudimentary hygeine standards. As a “frequent flyer” with the NHS I have been fortunate enough to receive an excellent standard of healthcare however I have also seen wards which are filthy, toilets which are of third world standard and staff who appear to be completely oblivious to the risks of infection.
I recently saw a representastive of a nursing union blaming overwork and the fact that they did not have enough time to wash their hands. People are dying. There can be absolutley no excuses and criminal procedings should be taken against anyone who is endangering life.
Cancergiggles – excellent point.
I remember reading that 5 – 10,000 people died last year in NHS hospitals because of MRSA or MRSA-related reasons. If enough BA aircraft fell out of the sky each year, or enough trains crashed to kill that many people our esteemed MPs, journalists and all manner of other people would be shrieking for heads to be served up and I can hear Obergruppenfurher von Blunkett on the Today programme promising prosecutions of company directors where possible.
Will anyone take responsibility for the state of the NHS nation?
Pete: “Will anyone take responsibility for the state of the NHS nation?”
Well no, of course not. This is socialism we are talking about. Behave yourself!
Of all the posts I’ve made on my blog, two of the most-visited and most-commented are ones I did on a MRSA outbreak in Texas: MSRA Staph Infection in Pasadena, TX and MRSA Staph Infection Update. If you want some medical horror stories, give them a look. It seems once a day someone new speaks up and talks about what they’ve dealt with.
Staph Remedies most can be researched on the internet:
Hospitals in Switzerland have the least cases of staph worldwide.
TO KILL STAPH
Researchers in Australia have discovered 2 Essential Oils to be very effective for staph Eucalyptus & Tea Tree Oil see article at following web page:
http://www.hsrmagazine.com/hotnews/22h15162022.html
Gary Young with “Young Living Essential Oils” believes Oil of Thyme kills staph used topically, inhaled, internally and/or rubbed into the feet. To use essential oils he explains how to dilute them with other oils for all their uses.
North American wild crafted Oil of Oregano kills staph.
Cinnamon was the most astounding of all.
“Cinnamon was one of the principal ingredients used in the manufacture of the precious ointments or “holy oil” which Moses was commanded to use in the Tabernacle for anointing the sacred vessels and the persons of the officiating priests (Exodus 30:23). It had to be imported from India and was therefore very costly and precious.
Cinnamon is a powerful antisepic that kills many decay- and disease-causing bacteria. It kills the microorganisms that cause botulism and staph infections.” Taken from “Miracle Food Cures of The Bible” book written by Reese Dubin. In his book he has many remedies for killing staph but they are not all shown in the index you have to search them out.
TO WASH AWAY STAPH
10% solution of Xylitol with distilled water to clear the nose of bacteria. Xylitol washes away both strep and staph. 20% solution of Xylitol with distilled water for the small pimples. You might try it on the large boils I don’t know if that works just know it works on the small ones. (The essential oils, Oil of Thyme or Oil of Oregano in a poltice work for the large boils.)
There is about 30 years of research on this sugar. Xlear.Inc has a nose spray with xylitol in it and is the fastest selling item in health food stores for the year of 2004. Please study the research.
Some web pages for Xylitol are:
http://www.nasal-xylitol.com
http://www.xylitol.net
http://www.xylitol.com
If on antibiotics need to check into D-Mannose see web page http://www.tahoma-clinic.com/mannose.shtml
along with the Xylitol to keep the candida (yeast) from getting out of control. When on antibiotics the good bacteria is also killed that keep yeast under control. Need to check with your doctor hopefully you go to a doctor that understands natural remedies along with medications and any contraindications.
I read an article by Dr. Mercola http://www.mercola.com with a caution concerning not mixing herbs and spices with processed foods. Because the essential oils in the herbs and spices mixed with processed food products could create methyleugenol which they do not know for sure but might be carcinoginic. Since Xylitol is classified as a wood alcohol even though they say it is neither wood nor alcohol and since I am not a chemist I thought I should pass this information on. Sorry can’t find the article to give you the site location.
The milatary is using xylitol in chewing gum because it prevents cavities by washing away the bacteria that causes cavities and remineralizes bone. See article at following site:
http://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/newsmaker_article.asp?idNewsMaker=5173&fSite=AO545
FOOD BE THY MEDICINE
The more I researched the more it sounded like an Itialian dressing. Thyme, oregano, garlic, olive oil,apple cider vinegar and salt. All of that was helpful with bacteria.
Cinnamon stick, apple cider and cloves were medicinal also.
Someone mentioned a New Zealand Honey was helpful for staph I have always heard it is known to be antimicrobial especially localy harvested. There is a remedy with honey and organic apple cider vinegar “with the mother” that Patricia Bragg’s has on her web site. Also a vinegar company out of Canada has a great web site explaining the benifits of apple cider vinegar. http://www.cidervinegar.com/ Check out the video on this site–very informative. It explains toward the end why it is important to have “the mother” in the vinegar, shows it is a live healthy bacteria.
Since Switzerland and Finland were the first to mass produce Xylitol I would like to find out if they use Glucose I.V. Drips like the U.S. (which would be food for bacteria) or if they use Xylitol I.V. Drips (which would help wash bacteria out of the body).
Also, if they diffuse essential oils to disinfect or clean the hospital rooms.
How can I find out these answers?????
I did read that Switzerland quaranteened (sp) the victims.
well all i would like to add id that its my grandmother wjo you are talking about and she is looseing her life because of the nhs in the uk , she use to have a life and now she is lucky to get a short shopping trip in a wheelchair . The nhs in the uk have near enough killed my dearly loved grandmother
I anybody would like to contact me e mail me to craig69uk@aol.com
thanks
craig evans
well all i would like to add is that its my grandmother wjo you are talking about and she is looseing her life because of the nhs in the uk , she use to have a life and now she is lucky to get a short shopping trip in a wheelchair . The nhs in the uk have near enough killed my dearly loved grandmother
I anybody would like to contact me e mail me to craig69uk@aol.com
thanks
craig evans
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