Universal Health Care: Cockroaches on Operating Tables

Alas, there are scandalous problems with the government-run health care system in Australia. The Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney is being investigated since a woman miscarried in the hospital emergency room toilets while waiting two hours to be treated. And, there's more.

From ABC.net.au:

A parliamentary inquiry into Sydney's Royal North Shore (RNS) hospital has heard a claim of live cockroaches being killed on operating theatre tables during surgeries.

A submission from retired RNS doctor Henry Slay Hughes also claims some of the hospital's operating tables are so old, one broke in two while a patient was anaesthetised.

With regard to the allegations of cockroaches on the operating tables, New South Wales Health Minister Reba Meagher stated that a recent thorough cleaning of the RNS facility was performed due to concerns about cleanliness.

When questioned about the operating table breaking while a patient was undergoing anesthesia, Area Health Service Chief Mattew Daly indicated that hospital staff acted quickly to catch the patient before he hit the floor and there was no injury.

The inquiry continues. Notably, considerable attention is being directed to the inadequacy of funding for the health care system. As with all socialized medical plans, the demand explodes toward the infinite while taxpayer resources to meet the demand are limited.

Consequently, waiting times for treatment become a mechanism to ration the limited health care services. If a patient can wait long enough, treatment will be provided. That is, of course, assuming that the patient survives long enough. And death sometimes does occur as demonstrated by the Canada Health Care System's practice of sending treatment notification letters with computer-generated apologies for patients who died while waiting.

However, in addition to unhealthy waiting times, the Australian problem of providing infinite services with finite resources presents itself also by evidence of inadequate equipment (operating room table breaking during a procedure) and degraded cleanliness (live cockroaches at surgeries).

Companion post at The Jawa Report.