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Report: British National HC Increasingly Turning Its Back on Kids

Ruby Own is a three-year-old British girl with a big smile. But when she was stricken with brain cancer, that smile got weaker and weaker. Similar smiles faded from her parents’ faces when British doctors, part of its socialized medicine system called NHS, told her there was nothing they could for the Ruby.

Couldn’t, or wouldn’t? That‘s the question London’s Daily Mail asks in an extensive article showing how Ruby and others have been “abandoned” by NHS. Luckily, there’s the U.S. Ruby’s parents raised enough money for her to get treatment in Indiana, and the young girl is now cancer free.

From the Mail:

Ruby is just one of a number of cancer-stricken children who have been effectively abandoned by the NHS, leaving their parents to strive against the odds to raise huge sums to fund life-saving specialist care abroad.

Only yesterday, the Mail revealed how John and Vicky Inglis, from York, raised £400,000 to save their five-year-old son Jamie’s life with a pioneering American cancer therapy. They were convinced his chances would be impossibly low if his treatment was left to the NHS.

It is a shameful reflection on our health care service. And, says Peter Bone, a Tory MP campaigning on behalf of such parents, it’s sadly all too typical of an NHS that has an ‘appalling record’ of not taking up new treatments that are adopted far more quickly in other countries.

But what is even more ­disturbing is that NHS funding may actually be available to give children these kinds of life-saving care. Some of the treatments are available as part of clinical trials here, while in other cases the NHS pays for children to be treated in Europe and the U.S.

Nevertheless, children often miss out: ­parents say their youngsters get labelled as too ill to receive specialist care in clinical trials for fear of making the treatment’s success rates look too low, or the families simply live in the wrong postcode to get funds for treatment overseas.

Instead, these parents are told there is ­nothing more that the NHS can do.

Read the full story from the Daily Mail.

Comments (62)

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  • ukdiver
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 10:16am

    and just how is it that a national health service provider is to determine who and what treatment is in the best interest of the system ?
    in America you have the choice to get good treatment at a very high cost. this cost is out of the reach of most people therefore it is of little use. or if you do access into it you end up bankrupt.
    the NHS system in the UK was once a very well funded institution. High employment after the war meant that more money was pouring into the ‘kitty’…….move forward 60 plus years and the work force is not there anymore to fund it. does this sound familiar America ? who will pay ? who gets to decide ? welcome to the social dilemma of the modern age……..health care is NOT a right.

    Report Post »  
  • Pseudosaunter
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 10:01am

    Clearly, having nationalized healthcare really hurts those who need care the most. Rationing of care is inevitable. “Public Healthcare” is always touted as helping the poor, but it‘s the those that struggle to make ends meet on a daily basis that suffer when there’s not enough “healthcare” to go around. Those of great means can go get care outside their country, with the U.S. being one of the most desirable options. If the U.S. continues to follow the path of the UK and Canada, to which country will those healthcare dollars that support research, innovation and talent go?

    http://pseudosaunters.blogspot.com/

    Report Post » Pseudosaunter  
  • petestreet
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:56am

    Will we go down the same path to third world healthcare? Our commie in chief wants to punish us for what happened to him during his childhood. Look into his past the dark world of Marshall Davis and you see why he is mentaly unstable.

    Report Post »  
  • texasfarmer
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:24am

    Obama’s health care solution is a suppository administered by the TSA.
    Bend over.

    Report Post » texasfarmer  
  • Spawnomite
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:16am

    BroBama’s healthcare system is such a joke. ****** me off that so many people fell for the snake oil salesman who is capable of doing NOTHING good.

    Report Post »  
  • Stronge
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:04am

    Can someone please explain how having a profit-driven insurance agency decide what medical care you qualify for is so great?

    Report Post » Stronge  
    • OneFunR6
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 10:11am

      Stronge

      It’s ‘great’ because most peeps don’t have to even look at the bill, let alone pay most of it.
      Car insurance doesn’t cover tires, breaks or oil changes….. just sayin’….
      Med insurance should cover things like cancer, not broken arms or check-ups….
      Emer. visits ought to be $$$ for everyone, but are most exp. for insurers.

      Report Post » OneFunR6  
    • Lydia
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 10:18am

      Profit-driven insurance companies or bankrupt governments are both BAD ways to deal with the need for healthcare. The solution I believe in comes from the site this article is on:
      http://nopom.info/articles/medicine.html

      Report Post » Lydia  
    • Stronge
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 6:54pm

      @onefunrg – do you know anything about the UK’s National Health Service?

      Report Post » Stronge  
  • mikem1969
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:53am

    Comming soon to AMERICAN under Obama killy ya care.

    Report Post »  
  • po-boy
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:44am

    Under Obama Care if your child gets a sore throat and is a christian. They will be decapitated

    Report Post »  
  • Lydia
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:30am

    Yep. Gotta read the proverbial handwriting on the wall: Fabian Socialism started in England… it’s no surprise that the beginning of eugenics shows its face there now, as well. It starts with letting the sick and elderly die, then expands to mandatory birth control and/or sterilization of anyone with ‘imperfect genes’ (by SOMEONE’S standards) and the result is a dull world in which all of the real intelligence has been cleansed from the population through elimination of the elderly combined with prevention of the birth of those defective, but brilliant souls.

    Report Post » Lydia  
    • Room 101
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:47am

      None of that will apply to the members of the left and right wings of the Inner Party, however. Only the outsiders will have these policies applied to our lives.

      It is amazing how many of the classic science fiction writers saw what the so-called ‘progressives’ had in store for the rest of us.

      Report Post » Room 101  
  • Rickfromillinois
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:30am

    Once you start down the slippery slope of determining medical care by the cost to society, how long will it be before all medical treatment is cutoff once you retire and no longer provide wealth to society, cutoff if you have a chronic ailment that a board determines will cost more to society then the individual pays in, cut off for the poor whose contributions to society are minimal. If you have a disease with a less then a 50% survivability rate will health care be cut off to save money?
    This is where our health care is heading for. Notice that the girl’s parents brought her to the U.S. for treatment and she now appears to be alright. She is lucky that it happened now because in a few years she would have been out of luck. Remember, the British health care system is the one they use as an example of what they say we need to get. God help us all.

    Report Post » Rickfromillinois  
    • mikem1969
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:00am

      That is the whole purpose behind socialized medicine, it gives a board the ability to say yes or no to treatment based on your status in society. Good old depopulation.

      Report Post »  
  • Room 101
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:30am

    As someone that has seen their very ill child treated by the best healthcare system in the world, this really hits home…

    Where will Americans send their children when the Donald Berwick’s of the world decide OUR child is not worth the expense?

    Report Post » Room 101  
  • Creestof
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:28am

    HC would not be a problem if people were not such WIMPS about their health care RIGHTS. I work in a pharmacy and day after day we have long lines of people who must spend the day chanting “Everything free in A-mel-i-ca.” Losers with nothing better to do with their lives than rush to the emergency room with a cold, sprain or whatever…and after several hours of waiting, they get their chance to tie up a doctor and his nurse with their childish complaint, get a prescription…and then rush to our pharmacy…all free or just a few dollars with their co-pay. All because they are “allowed” to. A lot of the stuff they get prescriptions for are available over the counter and they could have self-diagnosed, skipped the ER and just bought the stuff at the register and left…but NOOOOOOOOOOO…then it would not be virtually free!

    We fill tons of scripts written by the doctors these wimps see, for:
    Condoms
    multi-vitamins
    calcium pills
    tylenol
    cough syrup
    allergy pills
    elastic bandages
    ibuprofen
    etc.

    All of these are items we leave the pharmacy for, take off the shelf in the regular aisles and then fill their prescription with…all so they can avoid paying for it with their insurance,

    Waste of money.
    Waste of time.
    Waste of life.

    Make the wimps pay 100% of their ER/Doctors visits for non-essential ailments AND 100% of the cost of the resulting prescriptions they get…and you would see hourly miracle healings.

    Wimp (after 3 hours in the ER waiting room): “Yeah, I twisted my ankle skateboarding…I want to see a doctor, get xrayed, physical therapy, prescriptions for 800mg Motrin and some pain pills…and a note for 3 days off from work.”

    Nurse: “Ok, since this is a non-essential visit, you have 2 choices…Take your low life butt over to the drugstore and buy an Ace bandage, 200MG Motrin and some 375MG Tylenol for a total of about $20.00…or $10,000.00 for us to do it all since your insurance will not cover crybabies…which will it be?”

    Wimp: “You know…I feel a lot better all of a sudden!”

    If people would use their insurance only when it is NEEDED…and not for every splinter/papercut/sniffle/sprain and so on, JUST because they have insurance and don’t want to actually pay for their hypochondria…healthcare would NOT be a problem.

    Report Post »  
  • pjacobsuk
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:24am

    I am an American patriot living in the UK (for 17 years) and have family members who work in US medical positions (ER doctors and nurses). What you are reading above happens EVERYwhere. I am in no way sticking up for the NHS as perfect, but the problem you’re reading is in America too.
    People are and will always be sidelined. Pathetic but true.

    Unlike America, the NHS doctors here work for pittance compared US Docs. Many become doctors because they feel it’s a calling – and not a money or power making position.

    Again, the NHS is not perfect.

    Report Post »  
  • standswithafist
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:21am

    and they also have officials trolling the hospitals for those considered brain dead for organs. another nasty downside they do not talk about in the UK. even pressure the families of those whom expressly do not want to be donors.

    Report Post » standswithafist  
  • nosaints1
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:20am

    This story just confirms the rationing aspect of socialized medicine. We can only hope that OBAMACARE can be repealed before it is too late.

    Report Post »  
  • Derfel Cadarn
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:20am

    Coming soon to a dictatorship near you. Repeal obamacare its for the children

    Report Post »  
  • nosaints1
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:15am

    Add your comments

    Report Post »  
  • tmkphx1962
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:05am

    And here comes Obamacare. Do you think it will be any different?

    Report Post »  
  • poverty.sucks
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:04am

    Upon completely effective treatment for Gingivitis, then, and only then will the Brits remotely consider treating the ill.

    Report Post » poverty.sucks  
  • Conserving Ink
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 7:58am

    Obamacare will probably produce strange things like underground doctors and black market medicine.
    ________________________________________________________________________________
    http://conserving-ink.blogspot.com/2010/12/political-flocking.html

    Report Post » Conserving Ink  
  • treshall
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 7:56am

    From your keyboard to God’s inbox, Mrs. Clark. If we cannot get this abomination struck down, may God help us, especially the sick, as our system, the greatest health care system in the world, goes the way of the NHS. It makes me weep to even think of it.

    Report Post »  
    • GhostOfJefferson
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:52am

      If we can’t get it struck down, it becomes our duty to disobey it.

      That simple. And yes, that means risk. Liberty does not come from courts, but from free men who will not submit to tyrants.

      Report Post » GhostOfJefferson  
  • pscully17
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 7:54am

    this is going to be the ongoing controversy– ideology ( save a life at ANY cost of treatment) or economic stability ( save your society from devastating debt incurred by having to save lives, even though 80-90 percent of the subjects will never hold a job or benefit society in any fashion) todays debt crisis on a global scale indicates we cant save everybody!! its just not mathematecially possible.

    Report Post »  
    • poverty.sucks
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:14am

      The Death Panels will eliminate them costly sickin’ elderly, who will save the children when the remedy is available? According to the Brits, the Queen is fine.

      Report Post » poverty.sucks  
    • OneFunR6
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 10:00am

      pscully17

      Which is better, you pay for the hc that you can afford, OR……
      let the Gov determine WHAT level of care YOU are “entitled” to?

      Oh, you’re white, no health care for you, you whites have had far too much for the last 200 years.

      Report Post » OneFunR6  
    • pscully17
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 10:54am

      what you all are missing, thw whole country is missing is this.. society only continues if INDIVIDUALISM is put way down the list behind the the common good. You are not Owed Anything!! at some point, ideology like ME and I, and whats in it for the minority percentage of the whole, ie: Unions, of which I am one ( reluctantly), would rather kill the Business, than take a cut in wages, guarenteed benefits, and pensions to save it–, also, underperformers are hard to fire, NOT good for the Company, in the end, over time, we all have to make a decision on WHATS BEST FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY, not whats best for little Johnny cancer, or Grandma heartstroke. we cannot afford to CARE and SAVE everybody from every cancer/disease/ailment!! its a fact when math meets bleeding heart ideology, mathematcis wins. and when the HEARD is weakened because the sick and diseased are top priority, eventually the HEARD becomes extinct! aka America!! we are no longer a super power, we have massive debt, we are bleeding out our aorta, and nobody wants to aplly the pressure to stop the bleeding!

      Report Post »  
  • BurntHills
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 7:54am

    welcome to the future of America under obama’s deathcare law. the democrat playbooks said it for them: OUR sick children and elderly and mentally ill are not ‘working drones’ for the obama regime agenda machine, they will be eliminated so they are not a ‘drain’ on the system. …. JUST LIKE everywhere else in the world national socialism [nazis] exists.

    Report Post » BurntHills  
    • TXPilot
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:10am

      Alot of people don’t know, that Hitler didn’t start by killing the Jews, he started by murdering thousands of children and adults with chronic illnesses, mental deficiencies, and handicaps. Do you really think the government should be allowed to determine what the value of a person is?

      Report Post » TXPilot  
    • TexasCommonSense
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:33am

      Good point TXPilot. Hitler killed roughly 6 million Jews; he killed roughly 11 million total.

      Report Post » TexasCommonSense  
    • zeban48
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:40am

      If you read books on Hilter you will see that everything that Obama and the left wing liberals are doing fall right into what Hilter tried to do. We need to get Obama and every left wing liberal whether they are Demos or Repub. out of office and get back to what our forefathers fought for and died for.

      Report Post » zeban48  
    • po-boy
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:47am

      Obama didn’t read about Hitler. He has SOROS to tell him first hand, how to handle National Socialist health care.

      Report Post »  
    • KICKILLEGALSOUT
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:10am

      That’s what happens when the few taxpayers that pay into to the system have to pay for all the illegal immigrants and their 8 kids each, everybody loses!

      Report Post » KICKILLEGALSOUT  
    • SlimnRanger
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:24am

      in agreement with Txpilot,but what i do not understand is why the gays and lesbians are so madly in love with Obama and Nancy Pelosi, if this nation falls to Islam or the communist,the gays and lesbians will be killed off . Hitler did it,Islam beheads them, but yet they watch MSNBC and say ohhhh “i just love Keith,Racheal and Matthews,all common sense has left them. there won’t be any meds dished out for people living with HIV, cancer treatments will be to expensive so they won’t get treated and the list goes on and on. i am praying and praying that Obama care will be repealed and replaced. The squeaky wheel gets the greese so lets all squeak load and clear against it.

      Report Post »  
    • raybojabo
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 10:37am

      TXPILOT, You are so right. It always starts with the children and most defenseless.

      http://www.baycrest.org/Winter%202002/article4.htm

      Report Post »  
  • lljem60
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 7:53am

    Just think, we may have the same kind of wonderful healthcare here in the U.S. Doesn’t this make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

    Report Post »  
  • mrsclark
    Posted on December 14, 2010 at 7:50am

    Thank God Obamacare was juat found unconstitutional, we may actually be able to save our healthcare system after all.

    Report Post » mrsclark  
    • GeauxAlready
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 7:58am

      I’d buy some asprin & Band-aids just to be safe

      Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
    • tower7femacamp
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 8:13am

      Why on earth are 3 year olds getting cancer ?
      http://preventdisease.com/news/10//081010_everything_is_a_lie.shtml
      we are being poisoned and radiated to death

      Report Post » tower7femacamp  
    • dwh320
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:06am

      A national health care service has little choice but to abandon quality care for rationed care. This means anyone left in it will suffer due to the very nature of the system.

      And you Progressive Socialist Democrats have now blessed America with such a failed system of national healthcare.

      Report Post » dwh320  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:09am

      mrsclark
      It’s not over yet, it will eventually go to the S.C. and who knows which way Breyer will go?

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • GhostOfJefferson
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:51am

      No matter which way it goes, it’s unconstitutional. No matter which way it goes, I will not be following any mandates of said law (intentionally) nor shall I pay any fines levied for failure to comply with this socialist monstrosity.

      Line in the sand, this one is it. If we cannot stand up against outright Soviet laws when they are imposed upon us, we are slaves. I am not a slave, I am a free man.

      No compliance, no consent, no backing down.

      Report Post » GhostOfJefferson  
    • GhostOfJefferson
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 9:54am

      I’ll also point out, to those who question, that SCOTUS is not empowered to “interpret” the Constitution. They have appellate jurisdiction over the rulings of lower courts, which is not “interpretation of the Constitution”, it is rather “review of lower courts rulings with ultimate yay/nay authority”. Nothing more.

      Report Post » GhostOfJefferson  
    • snowleopard3200 {mix art}
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 11:06am

      @Ghostofjefferson

      Dead on in the matters you have posted about. The line is drawn in the sand for myself as well a long time ago. Let us hold strong as the Americans we all are. One step at a time and we all will win back the beloved land of ours, with the guidance of the Almighty.

      http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • Polwatcher
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 11:48am

      When are people going to learn that the government screws up everything it touches. Now-a-days this even includes the military (and I hate to say this). My point is that political correctness has invaded everything in the government like some kind of alien life form that is devoid of common sense. Our 10 year war with Muslims is an example. We have never been any good at winning long wars and this is no exception.

      Report Post »  
    • IVillageIdiot
      Posted on December 14, 2010 at 11:47pm

      It’s NOT really a “Health Care” system, we should stop calling it that as it only promotes the framing the enemy would like us to use and believe.

      It’s VOTE buying scheme. Once they have 1/6th of the US economy connected to the need for ever more spending, in order to keep their jobs, they will vote ONLY for the party that supports ever more GVT spending. i.e. this is just another Dem vote buying scheme.

      It’s EXACTLY the same scheme used in England and France and other countries with less resistance to socialist parlor tricks and word games. The unfortunate part is that we SHOULD have seen this train wreck forming many years ago and there apparently was little of no organized resistance establish prior to the assault.

      Its like…. we are waiting for them to pull the pistol, take a couple shots, allow them to actually inflict an injury or two… THEN…. we’re clear to respond!?!??? WTH?????

      Report Post » IVillageIdiot  
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