UK National Health Care Problems

People are saying that the Brits have the good stuff and we need it in the U.S.

Patients at an NHS hospital where hundreds of people died in squalor suffered 'horrific experiences that will haunt them and their loved ones for the rest of their lives', a damning report has found.

The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stafford Hospital, lost sight of its responsibility to provide safe care after becoming preoccupied with cost-cutting and targets, the independent report concluded today.

Patients were 'routinely neglected', with patients left unwashed - at times for up to a month - and food and drinks left out of their reach, the inquiry found.

The probe was launched into events at Stafford Hospital after another report last March from the Healthcare Commission revealed a catalogue of failings at the trust, which also runs Cannock Chase Hospital.

Appalling standards of care put many patients at risk, and between 400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected in a three-year period from 2005 to 2008, the commission found.

Today, inquiry chairman Robert Francis QC made 18 recommendations for both the trust and the government in his final report after hearing evidence from more than 900 patients and families.

Check the link for more complete description on the abysmal neglect patients can expect from the British national health care system.

[Add.] Check "unimaginable suffering" at SocGlory.