Yay for socialized medicine!
Dr. Crippen has been banging this drum constantly in his blog. Well, now it's official.
More than a quarter of health trusts in England are failing to meet basic hygiene standards, official figures show today.
The Healthcare Commission reports that no improvement has been made on a year ago.
In total, 103 out of 391 trusts admitted they did not achieve the minimum requirements, brought in by the Government to help combat the hospital superbugs, MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
Patients groups and politicians said that it was "shocking" that one in four still did not meet the standards, despite ministers' pledges to tackle cleanliness.
More than 8,000 deaths were related to MRSA and C. diff. The report shows that 26 per cent of trusts failed to keep facilities clean, did not have adequate infection control or follow guidelines on decontaminating reusable equipment.
The failings come despite a £50 million "deep clean" of every hospital in England, designed to curb superbugs.
Meanwhile...
Private hospitals don't get MRSA
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.
So these are straight-up unnecessary deaths, not even the cost of doing business and getting on with life. 8,000 a year. (Up from 7,600 when that second article was published in 2004.) Over 13/100,000. Over twice as high as the U.S. homicide rate. "Welcome to our socialist gun control paradise. You're less likely to get shot (although more likely to be a victim of lesser crimes) but never fear, our medical system will increase your risk by more than enough to make up for it."
Why does America spend so much money on health care? Because it's worth it.