Doctors under ObamaCare could never withdraw fluids, food, medications and any treatment other than massive sedation because they have decided that the patient is near death, right? They couldn’t misuse the protocol and ignore signs that the patient is, in fact, recovering, right? Because we are much, much smarter than other countries that have socialized medicine, right?
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.
Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.
But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.
As a result the scheme is causing a “national crisis” in patient care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative care experts including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke’s cancer centre in Guildford, and four others.
“Forecasting death is an inexact science,”they say. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death “without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.
“As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients.”
From the article, the sure – absolutely certain – sign that what was meant to be a good guideline for the absolute end of life is being misused – badly:
Prof Millard said that it was “worrying” that patients were being “terminally” sedated, using syringe drivers, which continually empty their contents into a patient over the course of 24 hours.
In 2007-08 16.5 per cent of deaths in Britain came about after continuous deep sedation, according to researchers at the Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, twice as many as in Belgium and the Netherlands. (Emphasis added)
16.5% of Britons died with a needle dripping a continuous flow of a powerful sedative into their arm - placed there by a doctor.
(Side question: Isn’t the American left trying to claim that this is cruel and unusual punishment when administered to felons sentenced to death?)
Can’t happen here, right?
So why have the boards that will decide treatment already been funded through the Obama ”stimulus” plan?
Can’t happen here.
Right.
UPDATE: Or what Bookworm said. That government basket will come for all of you one day if you don’t stop it. Even you, Barack, even you.
This is precisely what most Americans fear will happen if the Obamessiah gets his ‘public option’ passed – and they are exactly right to fear it. This is the inevitable result of rationed health care. I know, the Chosen One says there will be no rationing but he’s just lieing again (he does so almost daily). It is a virtual impossiblity to institute everything he wants in his health care reform package and still keep costs down. The ONLY way to make it even marginally affordable is to ration care.
That is really beyond chilling!
The perverse incentives are the state saves money on care and the death may cause the estate tax to come into play, depending on the net worth of the elderly patient(Great Britain).