Policy Organization And Financing Health Care – WK 1 RESP

Policy Organization And Financing Health Care – WK 1 RESP

I believe that everyone should have access to healthcare – we just haven’t figured out how to do it right, yet. The NHS is arguably the most successful implementation of nationalized health care at this point, but it has many shortfalls. Wait times for care are astronomical, and when you are able to see a provider, they are it. Second opinions are near impossible to get, and considered a luxury if you can find one. According to the British Medical Journal from December 2020, “eliminating waits of over 52 weeks—162 000 of them at the last count1 (Links to an external site.)—and meeting the broader standard of 18 weeks for elective care will take years, not months”.
From a personal viewpoint, my aunt lives in Scotland. She is elderly, but has never been sickly. She went to an NHS hospital with severe RUQ pain with nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and anorexia. She was seen and diagnosed with gallstones which were obstructing the bile duct and causing pancreatitis, told she would need surgery, and sent home pending an available surgery date. She had the option of staying in the hospital, however due to budget cuts at the national level, she would need to provide her own linens, and family would have to bring her food. They also did not have the staff to support someone in a pre-op status (despite her labs indicating hepatic impairment), so if she needed “cleaning up” family would have to manage that as well. It took 2 months, and a ruptured gallbladder before they took her to surgery. The excuse given was that her age made her a “less than ideal candidate for surgery”.
Unfortunately, this is not the only story like this. When healthcare is nationalized, it is based on numbers and outcomes and cost efficiency, not about actually providing people with quality care.