Comments on: A Tale of Two Hospitals

By: Rhea Ezpeleta

Rhea Ezpeleta — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:37:18 +0000

Nice philosophy. I love it. Thank you for sharing

By: Knitted in the Womb

Knitted in the Womb — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:32:18 +0000

I agree that there are rampant problems in our health care system, often spurred by malpractice fears.

The problems you give examples of seem to be spurred by malpractice concerns…which aren’t going to be fixed by the currently proposed legislation which actually *PUNISHES* states that dare to pass malpractice reform legislation.

By: QoB

QoB — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:55:38 +0000

I haven’t read all of the above comments, so my apologies if someone has already stated this, but:

The Republic of Ireland (Ireland, Éire, the South of Ireland, whichever) is NOT part of the UK, it is NOT part of Britain. We don’t have an NHS here (mostly public healthcare supplemented by some private insurance).

If the first part of the story took place in the North of Ireland (Northern Ireland), then that IS part of the UK, and then the care given to your cousin was given by the NHS.

I just had to clarify this, firstly as an Irish citizen, and just in case anyone reading this story wanted to compare healthcare systems around the world and got confused.

By: Myrto Ashe

Myrto Ashe — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:24:10 +0000

This is a very nice post and a great discussion (a little one-sided, but that is the side I am on…)

I grew up in Canada, went to medical school in Montreal, did my residency in the US and have practiced 20 years mostly in community health centers in the US.

I want to say something about emergency rooms and the difference between Montreal hospitals and the ones I became familiar with, first in Rhode Island, then in Massachusetts, San Francisco and finally in Colorado.

Life in the US, compared to Canada, is just more gnarly. One of my first ER patients as an intern had been beaten and thrown out of a car – fractures on both sides of her face – passed out drunk… In four years of medical school I had not seen this in Montreal. Honestly, I was so traumatized I never went to visit her once she got admitted. I could not deal with it, and no one was going to help me.

The next month I overheard a nurse casually ask a young man in a pediatric ER: “So, where else were you shot?” Another teen was sleeping off an alcoholic binge. Heck, Providence was so dangerous in 1987 there were yellow HELP buttons on the street lights in the hospital parking lot.

It’s a funny thing you might not expect, but there is a fair amount of post-traumatic stress disorder going on within the medical profession. I am still reeling from the night 2 years ago when I was called to admit a 17 year old in a coma from drug abuse. The grief at seeing his young body devastated in this way was almost unbearable. I think the best writing on this is by David Hilfiker (“Not All of us Are Saints”), who insists that medicine is about “service”, and that this must be embraced, or callous craziness like Sharon describes is the outcome.

Finally a point no one ever makes: the best way to decrease medical costs is to cut back on the number of people getting sick. So you start with the department of Agriculture, the department of Transportation, Education, and the department of Defense (you want to see PTSD – just wait a couple of years). Oh yes, and get rid of the television!! And did I mention Racism? Income Inequality? These are all underlying reasons for our high “health care” costs.

By: Cornish_K8

Cornish_K8 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:38:45 +0000

Bit confused here. Is the National Health system receiving praise here in Ireland or the UK? It reads as if it happened in the Irish Republic but it might have been Northern Ireland. The UK and Irish systems, while both being ‘public’, are very different.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:51:04 +0000

Probably redundantly, I’ll add my voice to those in favour of the Australian (socialised) system. It is by no means perfect, but no-one is denied emergency care here. No-one. And the level of treatment is, on the whole, good. I’ve had a very, very sick sibling, multiple health problems of my own, three difficult pregnancies resulting in caesarian deliveries, and I cannot say I have any complaints (except, ironically, about the ONE provider I paid privately for – the anesthetist who gave me the spinal block for my last baby, and botched it up, giving me nerve damage in my thoracic spine). Our public health system is overloaded, a bit clunky, and sometimes annoying, but it works. We get treated, and treated like human beings, not cash cows.

By: Bec

Bec — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:53:21 +0000

I must run in vastly different circles than you do because I have met several people who have experienced health care in other countries as well as here who have said they would rather take ours. This includes people from France, Brazil and other such places. I don’t disagree that our system needs some fixing, but I really don’t think the current proposal is the answer. And regardless of what side of the debate people fall on, I wonder how many people spouting off opinions have actually read the entire bill.

By: “If you can name a large population from a developed country with national health care clamoring for an American style system, please, enlighten me.” « Singlepayeresource

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:11:22 +0000

[...] care clamoring for an American style system, please, enlighten me.” Sharon Astyk relates an experience in an Irish hospital vs one in the U.S. [...]

By: Theresa

Theresa — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:48:13 +0000

Just added some numbers and found that here in Alberta, Canada, I pay $1969 CDN for health care for a year for both my husband and I. If we had kids the amount would be the same. That includes coverage for subsidized eye exams and corrective lenses, as well as for 80% coverage of prescription medication and most dental, and subsidized physiotherapy, psychotherapy and chiropractic services.

By: Theresa

Theresa — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:33:38 +0000

As a Canadian I am so grateful for our health care system. I am utterly astounded at the rhetoric I’ve heard coming out of those ‘town meetings’ about health care reform in the US, people talking about ‘death panels’ and who seem to mistake socialized anything for communism. Our Canadian system isn’t perfect, like others have said, but when I wrecked my knee falling out of my husband’s semi truck, my knee was repaired at no cost to me other than my monthly health care premiums (of which my employer pays half). I also received subsidized physiotherapy for months afterwards. My husband had hip surgery earlier this year, again at no cost to us other than the government regulated premiums. He’s still taking his physiotherapy now – he will get 20 free visits because he was a surgical patient. There were some wait times involved in both of our surgeries, but nothing ridiculous, and no onerous medical bills before, during or after the fact. We heal up and carry on.

I am sorry for your family’s awful experiences in your health care system Sharon. It’s just not right that people get treated this way. I hope that the rhetoric gets toned down and people there realize that providing a basic level of free health care for everyone is just the right thing to do. Way better than bailing out banks and car manufacturers.