Salud socialista

Relacionado con el último documental trucho de Michael Moore, no se pierdan esta columna de Helen Evans, la directora de Nurses for Reform, un organismo europeo de enfermeras que luchan por la reforma orientada al consumidor de los sistemas de salud europeos.

En Canadá la situación es muy parecida, aunque por los números que se manejan aparentemente todavía no llegó a los extremos de Gran Bretaña. Por otro lado, por lo menos en el Reino Unido la gente tiene la opción de acceder al sistema privado, que está prácticamente prohibido en Canadá:

Upon launching its state health service in 1948, the British government promised that it would provide its citizens with all the "medical, dental and nursing care" needed, so that "everyone -- rich or poor -- [could] use it." To make good on its plans, the government nationalized more than 3,000 independent hospitals, clinics and care homes.

But today, after nearly six decades of attempting to make socialized medicine work, the NHS is in a perilous state.

Consider waiting lists. Across Britain, patients wait years for routine -- or even emergency -- treatments. And many die while waiting.

Indeed, the NHS cancels around 100,000 operations because of shortages each year. In a growing number of communities, it is increasingly difficult for people to simply get an appointment with an NHS general practitioner for a regular checkup.

Further, when it comes to keeping patients healthy, NHS hospitals are notoriously unfit. After admittance to state hospitals, more than 10 percent of patients contract infections and illnesses that they did not have prior to arrival. And according to the Malnutrition Advisory Group, up to 60 percent of NHS patients are undernourished during inpatient stays.