jolly old england,england swings like a pendulum do......La,la la

Steven Gaal · July 9, 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2170792/Elderly-patients-deprived-food-drink-die-quicker-save-hospitals-money.html#ixzz209xs4tvp

Elderly patients are being 'deprived of food and drink so they die quicker and free up bed space', claim doctors

Six doctors say the 'care pathway' practice could be being used in UK hospitals to ease pressure on resources
- They say in the elderly natural death was more often free of pain and distress
By Emily Allen

PUBLISHED: 02:28 EST, 9 July 2012 | UPDATED: 09:20 EST, 9

########################

Euthanasia debate hots up after new draft bill

Lord Falconer is campaigning and supporting a new bill that will give Doctors the power to kill adults who have requested that they end their life.

A new draft Bill recommending assisted suicide, and a consultation on the draft, have been launched this week by euthanasia lobby group ‘Dignity in Dying’ (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society) with the assistance of Parliamentary group ‘Choice at the End of Life’.

Once the consultation is closed on 20 November 2012, leading euthanasia campaigner Lord Falconer QC will table the draft Bill as a Private Members Bill in the House of Lords.

Lord Falconer wants doctors to be given the power to help mentally competent adults with less than one year to live to kill themselves.

Over the last six years there have been three failed attempts to legalise assisted suicide in Britain, all of which have failed due to concerns about public safety.

The debate surrounding the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide has increased in intensity this month.

Last week the British Medical Association defeated a motion calling on it to move its official position on assisted suicide from ‘opposed’ to ‘neutral’.

Euthanasia lobbyists are descending on Parliament today (4 July) to lobby Parliament and to be addressed by Sir Terry Pratchett.

Campaign group Care Not Killing, of which Christian Concern is a member, held an alternative rally and mass lobby of Parliament yesterday (3 July), aimed at resisting the weakening of end of life laws.

Speakers included Ann Widdecombe, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Jim Dobbin MP, Fiona Bruce MP, Dr Peter Saunders and others.

Peter Saunders, Campaigns Director of Care Not Killing, said:

“At a time of economic recession and shrinking health budgets we are going to hear more and more demands for euthanasia based on economic grounds.

“Of course they will always be carefully clothed in the language of autonomy and compassion subtly disguising the fact that there are mainly families and politicians who have a lot to gain financially if those whose lives are judged to be worthless can be ‘mercifully released’.

“We have 15-20 Britons going to the Dignitas facility in Switzerland each year to kill themselves currently. But with an Oregon or Dutch law we would have 1,200 or 13,000 deaths annually respectively. And given the level of prejudice in this country that already exists towards the elderly it could be many more.”

Posted by David Pilkington

Extract from http://www.christianconcern.com[*]----------------------------------------------------------------------

[*]Bobbies on bicycles, two by two,

Westminster Abbey the tower of Big Ben,

The rosy red cheeks of the little children. (Roger Miller)

Edited July 9, 2012 by Steven Gaal

Steven Gaal · August 18, 2012

(Without God you only end were you begin,Gaal)

Genetically engineering 'ethical' babies is a moral obligation, says Oxford professor

http://www.telegraph...-professor.html#

Hugh Pickens

"The Telegraph reports that Oxford Professor Julian Savulescu, an expert in practical ethics, says that creating so-called designer babies could be considered a 'moral obligation' as it makes them grow up into 'ethically better children' and that we should actively give parents the choice to screen out personality flaws in their children such as potential alcoholism, psychopathy and disposition to violence as it means they will then be less likely to harm themselves and others. 'Surely trying to ensure that your children have the best, or a good enough, opportunity for a great life is responsible parenting?' writes Savulescu, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics. 'So where genetic selection aims to bring out a trait that clearly benefits an individual and society, we should allow parents the choice. To do otherwise is to consign those who come after us to the ball and chain of our squeamishness and irrationality.' Savulescu says that we already routinely screen embryos and fetuses for conditions such as cystic fibrosis and Down's syndrome and couples can test embryos for inherited bowel and breast cancer genes. 'Whether we like it or not, the future of humanity is in our hands now. Rather than fearing genetics, we should embrace it. We can do better than chance.'"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Nicholas West

So, just a quick quote from another self-proclaimed ethicist only concerned with the well being of society and for doing a service to those who might have a difficult life ahead of them:

He who is bodily and mentally not sound and deserving may not perpetuate this misfortune in the bodies of his children. The people's state has to perform the most gigantic rearing-task here. One day, however, it will appear as a deed greater than the most victorious wars of our present bourgeois era. - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1924)

This philosophy which led to the estimated deaths of 350,000 Germans (including a few doctors/executioners hanged later at Nuremberg) is now believed to have been a precursor to the even more indiscriminate killing to follow, as indicated by this brief summary of the "T4 program" signed by Hitler in October of 1939 as a "mercy killing" of the sick and disabled.

Code named Aktion T 4, the Nazi euthanasia program to eliminate 'life unworthy of life' at first focused on newborns and very young children. Midwives and doctors were required to register children up to age three who showed symptoms of mental retardation, physical deformity, or other symptoms included on a questionnaire from the Reich Health Ministry. (emphasis added)

A decision on whether to allow the child to live was then made by three medical experts solely on the basis of the questionnaire, without any examination and without reading any medical records.

Each expert placed a + mark in red pencil or - mark in blue pencil under the term 'treatment' on a special form. A red plus mark meant a decision to kill the child. A blue minus sign meant a decision against killing. Three plus symbols resulted in a euthanasia warrant being issued and the transfer of the child to a 'Children's Specialty Department' for death by injection or gradual starvation....

The Nazi euthanasia program quickly expanded to include older disabled children and adults. Hitler's decree of October, 1939, typed on his personal stationary, enlarged 'the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.' (Source)

Of course, any involuntary form of euthanasia should more properly be called eugenics, which is invariably where this mental disorder of reasoning leads -- that reasoning being that in order to value some humans, you must extinguish others.

The above historical example is not to highlight one single worst villain, but to demonstrate a worldview which keeps cropping up again and again within the halls of government-endorsed medicine and science.

In fact, eugenics has a long history established in America well before Hitler's arrival ... and apparently continues long after his death.

http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/new-medical-ethics-designer-genes-for.html

################################

Bobbies on bicycles, two by two,
Westminster Abbey the tower of Big Ben,
The rosy red cheeks of the little children. (Roger Miller)
(or else !!!!!!!! ,Gaal))

Edited August 18, 2012 by Steven Gaal

Steven Gaal · October 26, 2012

UPDATE

++++++++++++++

Hospitals bribed to put patients on pathway to death: Cash incentive for NHS trusts that meet targets on Liverpool Care Pathway

Some hospitals set target of two thirds of all deaths should be on LCP
- At least £30m in extra money handed to hospitals to achieve these goals
  - Critics warn financial incentives could influence the work of doctors
  By Steve Doughty
  
  PUBLISHED: 17:21 EST, 25 October 2012 | UPDATED: 17:21 EST, 25 October 2012
  Hospital consultant Professor Patrick Pullicino warned financial incentives for hospitals to put patients on the Liverpool Care Pathway could influence the work of doctors
  
  Hospitals are paid millions to hit targets for the number of patients who die on the Liverpool Care Pathway, the Mail can reveal.
  
  The incentives have been paid to hospitals that ensure a set percentage of patients who die on their wards have been put on the controversial regime.
  
  In some cases, hospitals have been set targets that between a third and two thirds of all the deaths should be on the LCP, which critics say is a way of hastening the deaths of terminally ill patients.
  
  At least £30million in extra money from taxpayers is estimated to have been handed to hospitals over the past three years to achieve these goals.
  
  Critics of the method warned last night that financial incentives for hospitals could influence the work of doctors.
  
  The LCP involves withdrawal of life-saving treatment. Patients are sedated and most are denied nutrition and fluids by tube. On average a patient put on the Pathway dies within 29 hours.
  
  One of the leading critics, hospital consultant Professor Patrick Pullicino, said: 'Given the fact that the diagnosis of impending death is such a subjective one, putting a financial incentive into the mix is really not a good idea and it could sway the decision-making process.'
  
  LCP is thought to be used in more than 100,000 cases a year.
  
  Yesterday the Association for Palliative Medicine, which represents doctors working in hospices and on specialist hospital wards, announced it is organising an inquiry into the method.
  
  The LCP is intended to ease the final hours of patients who are close to death and to spare them the suffering associated with invasive treatment.
  
  Payments to hospitals to introduce it are made through a system called Commissioning for Quality and Innovation, or CQUIN, which channels money to hospital trusts through NHS 'commissioners'.
  
  More...
  - DAILY MAIL COMMENT: a welcome review of the pathway to death
    - Doctors to act on Care Pathway: After Mail campaign, investigation is launched into controversial guidelines on 'hastening death'
      - Care Pathway condemned by senior doctors as 'medical treatment that hastens death'
        Top doctor's chilling claim: The NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year
        My diary of mum's awful death on the Liverpool Care Pathway: Nurse's heart-rending account of how doctors decided to put her mother on 'pathway to death'
  The use of CQUIN payments to encourage the spread of the LCP through the wards and to persuade doctors to meet Pathway targets was revealed in answers to Freedom of Information requests.
  
  Among trusts that confirmed the use of targets was Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which said that in the financial year which ended in March the percentage of patients who died on the Pathway was '43 per cent against a target of 35 per cent'.
  
  Over the year the Trust received £308,000 for achieving 'goals involving the Liverpool Care Pathway'. Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust had CQUIN payments connected to the Liverpool Care Pathway almost halved after failing to reach targets.
  
  Controversial: The LCP is intended to ease the final hours of patients who are close to death and to spare them the suffering associated with invasive treatment
  
  Figures show Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust had CQUIN payments connected to the Liverpool Care Pathway almost halved after failing to reach targets
  
  The Trust was offered £73,385 for increasing numbers of patients who die at home rather than in hospital.
  
  Part of the scheme was a target for the number of patients discharged from hospital to die at home after being put on the Liverpool Care Pathway.
  
  This would have paid £36,392 if a 47.6 per cent target had been reached. Its FOI statement said: 'The Trust achieved 45.5 per cent so funding for the LCP element was reduced to £18,600.'
  
  'Given the fact that the diagnosis of impending death is such a subjective one, putting a financial incentive into the mix is really not a good idea and it could sway the decision-making process.'
  
  Professor Patrick Pullicino
  
  FOI replies so far received by the Mail suggest that if the money paid by NHS commissioners were spread equally around all NHS acute hospitals, it would mean £30million has been sunk into the campaign to put the Pathway into universal use since 2009.
  
  The Department of Health defended LCP payments by target last night. A spokesman said: 'It is right local areas try to improve the care and support offered to dying people as it means patients are more comfortable and treated with dignity in their final days and hours.
  
  'We are clear the Liverpool Care Pathway can only work if each patient is fully consulted, where this is feasible, and their family involved in all aspects of decision-making. Staff must properly communicate with the patient and their family – any failure to do so is unacceptable.'
  
  But Dr Tony Cole, chairman of the Medical Ethics Alliance pressure group said: 'If death is accelerated by a single day that will save the NHS nearly £200 – that is the estimated cost of a patient per day in hospital.
  
  'My position on the LCP is that it is inherently dangerous and unnecessary.'
  
  Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz2APWD24Yk

Edited October 26, 2012 by Steven Gaal

Steve Knight · October 27, 2012

ROFL! Hope Hospital!

I was born there. If anything is ever misnamed, it's that place

It merged a few years ago with Salford Royal hospital, after they shut that place down.

But then, the area is rife with hospitals. Something like 7 or 8 inside a 20minute drive....There's plans now to shut some down, to save money. Travel time will be a few minutes longer, in emergencies, but something has to be done. It's fairly ridiculous...

Gotta love the Daily Fail with their hysterical takes on rather benign matters. "Gotta whip them up into ranting racists or we won't sell any copies!"

Steven Gaal · October 27, 2012

Euthanasia topic taken up by more serious outlets.

Below video/SONG Euthanasia Blues, has euthanasia info link at bottom

http://www.normemma.com/videos/euth_blues.htm

=========================================================

Opinion

The Liverpool Care Pathway and its discontents

Differences of opinion might be appearing in the pro-life circuit over end of life issues

by Sebastian TarwaterPosted: Saturday, October 27, 2012, 9:50 (BST)

As fall-outs between pro-life campaigners go, this one has yet to surface, but it could turn for the worse. The tension is over whether or not the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) is being used as a form of euthanasia.

In June Dr Patrick Pullicino, a neurologist, claimed that the Pathway was an "assisted death pathway". According to the doctor, patients are being placed on the LCP without clear evidence that they are close to death, while the sensationalised Daily Mail headline ran: “Top doctor's chilling claim: The NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year” - where 130,000 is the total number of patients who are put on the LCP out of the 450,000 that are terminally ill. In other words, the majority of people who are close to death are not put on the Pathway.

Then in September the Catholic Archbishop of Southwark called for an inquiry into the care of terminally ill patients on the LCP. Writing to the Secretary of State for Health following a number of disturbing reports, he said: “It does seem to me that a thorough and urgent investigation needs to take place, examining the evidence on which the criticisms that have been made of the LCP rest, so that conclusions can be reached as to whether any corrective action is needed.” The Department of Health has just responded, saying there would not be another review.

Meanwhile Dr Peter Saunders, the director of Christian Medical Fellowship and the campaigns director of Care Not Killing, is an outspoken supporter of the LCP, as long as it’s properly administered, and writes about the matter on his personal blog.

Thus slight differences of opinion seem to be floating around in the pro-life end of life camp. Dr Pullicino, who according to the US online newspaper National Catholic Reporter is a Catholic, claims that the “determination [of the medics] in the LCP leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. The personal views of the physician or other medical team members of perceived quality of life or low likelihood of a good outcome are probably central in putting a patient on the LCP.”

But only terminally ill patients very close to death can be put on the LCP, which was developed as part of the hospice movement in the UK. Since then it has spread into other settings where dying people are looked after, such as in hospitals, care homes and in people’s own homes. According to Dr Saunders: “Before a patient can be placed on the pathway the multi-professional team caring for them have to agree that all reversible causes for their condition have been considered and that they are in fact imminently dying”, adding that “the assessment then makes suggestions for palliative care options to consider and whether non-essential treatments and medications should be discontinued”.

The goal of the properly administered pathway is to help coordinate the work of all carers so the wishes and needs of the patient are directed towards a good and relatively pain free end of life. Furthermore, checks need to be carried out as regularly as every four hours to asses whether the previous diagnoses can still be upheld.

An evaluation of the LCP and its implementation is crucial to maintain trust in this methodology of end of life care. However, such evaluations have taken place leading to 22 of the most well known health care organisations in the UK, such as Macmillan Cancer Support, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Nuffield Trust, Sue Ryder care and Age UK among others, lending their support to a statement reaffirming a properly administered LCP.

Whatever differences may exist amongst pro-life end of life campaigners, they need to be resolved quickly so as not to distract from the ongoing work to fight the liberalisation of assisted dying regulations.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Doctors to launch investigation into Liverpool Care Pathway

Doctors are to investigate public concerns over the use of the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway, which has been used without family members’ knowledge.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9630194/Doctors-to-launch-investigation-into-Liverpool-Care-Pathway.html

Steven Gaal · November 25, 2012

WND EXCLUSIVE
TV to die for: Assisted-suicide comedy coming
BBC program taking idea of helping-to-die to new level
The BBC, which has advocated legalization of assisted suicide and last year televised a controversial documentary on the subject, is taking the issue to a new level with a sitcom focusing on the practice.
According to a report from the U.K.’s Christian Institute, the “plot involves a group of friends who set up an assisted suicide business to help a terminally ill neighbor, and to pay off gambling debts.”
The program, described as a “controversial comedy,” will be called “Way To Go” and will air next year.
Radio Times writer Paul Jones commented that BBC Three is “clearly of the opinion that we should laugh in the face of death’ and assisted suicide ‘may be an unlikely subject for comedy.”
The London Daily Mail reported last year the backlash against the BBC’s promotion of assisted suicide hit a peak when hundreds of complaints were filed over its airing of a documentary that showed the final moments of the life of millionaire Peter Smedley, who died by assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic.
The report said four senior members of British nobility at the time accused the BBC of running an “orchestrated campaign” on assisted death, describing the documentary as “repugnant and disgraceful.”
Those horrified by the video outnumbered those who endorsed it 10-1, the report said.
At that time, the peers wrote: “Setting aside our repugnance that the death of a patient with motor neuron disease should be turned into a form of voyeuristic entertainment, the BBC has a duty to provide balanced debate. … It is not the job of the corporation to become a lobbying organization or a cheerleader for those who wish to change the law.”
Read the controversial ideas in “Suicide of a Superpower” by Patrick Buchanan.
The documentary was the fifth program created by the BBC in just the last few years that promoted assisted suicide, which parliament has rejected through multiple votes.
The BBC’s response to the criticism was to air the new assisted suicide series, which is scheduled to include at least six episodes.
A BBC promotion of the program says: “‘Way To Go’ follows brothers Scott and Joey and their friend Cozzo. After Scott is moved by a terminally ill neighbor’s request to die – and at the same time faced with a predatory female employer, a split from his girlfriend, and a desperate life or death need for cash to pay off his brother Joey’s gambling debts – he and his best mate Cozzo stumble towards (sic) what they think is their only solution: an assisted-suicide machine.”
The BBC says that along the way, “the 20-something mates find love in the strangest ways, fall out with each other and are touched by some of the people they come across.”
On the U.K.’s “Chortle” website, show creator Bob Kushell said having his program on the BBC was more important to him than the birth of his child or his wedding.
He told the site: “As someone who was weaned on great British comedy, including Monty Python, Blackadder and Fawlty Towers, there has been no bigger thrill in my life than to have a show on the BBC – narrowly edging out the birth of my son and trouncing my wedding day by a landslide.”
The Christian Institute reported that a physician, Dr. Peter Saunders of the Care Not Killing organization, has accused the BBC of “cheerleading” for legalized assisted suicide.

Steven Gaal · November 30, 2012

Bobbies on bicycles, two by two,
Westminster Abbey the tower of Big Ben,
The rosy red cheeks of the little children. (Roger Miller)
===============================================
UK: Sick babies are sent home to die
- Posted by Site *ADMINS* on November 30, 2012 at 12:35pm in Current News/Events
- View Discussions
UK doctor: Sick babies are sent home to die

A British physician’s disturbing testimony is shedding light on the increasingly common practice of National Health Service (NHS) hospitals sending sick or severely disabled newborn babies home or to hospices to die of starvation or dehydration.

Newborn babies are being being placed on the Liverpool Care Pathway for end-of-life care, a system originally allotted and designed for elderly or terminally ill adults. That end-of-life care involves the removal of food and fluid tubes, a method which can take an average of ten days to result in death.

The Daily Mail reports an investigation is being launched to determine “whether cash payments to hospitals to hit death pathway targets have influenced doctors’ decisions.”

The physician, who wishes to remain anonymous, recounted his experience in a submission to the British Medical Journal, titled “How it feels to withdraw feeding from newborn babies.”

Parents must give doctors to permission to put their child on the pathway to death.

MORE

http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/30/uk-doctor-testifies-that-under-so...

Steven Gaal · December 23, 2012

_{Death by neglect: Lawsuit reveals 'normalization of cruelty' in UK health system}

_{Published: 23 December, 2012, 13:11 RT}

_{A UK hospital has apologized and paid a settlement following a lawsuit that revealed years of grave malpractice. The accounts of negligence included letting a patient starve to death and reports of nurses mocking patients.}

_{UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the British press that he was}_{“disgusted and appalled”}_{by the scandal, which affected over 38 families in the Midlands region of the UK. He stressed that the government was working to ensure that such failings of the National Health System (NHS) are detected more quickly in future.}

_{“The failings we uncovered were appalling – vulnerable patients were left starving and thirsty, with drinks left out of reach, buzzers ignored and people left to sit in their own waste by the very people meant to be caring for them,”}_{said Emma Jones, a lawyer from Leigh Day & Co, who represented victims and families.}

_{A court has ordered the hospital to pay out a total of £410,000 ($663,000) to the plaintiffs.}

_{Alexandra hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire, has not admitted liability for the numerous accounts of malpractice, but has issued apologies to the families whose relatives suffered from neglect. Out of all 38 cases, five patients survived – the rest died in the hospital.}

_{A spokesperson for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust argued that all of the cases cited were several years old, and that hospital standards have improved since.}

_{"Nevertheless, the Trust accepts that the care afforded to some patients, some years ago – between 2002 and 2009 – fell below the requisite standard, and has apologized for the shortcomings,"}_{the spokesperson told Sky News.}

_{Among the cases of abuse detailed in the lawsuit against Alexandra hospital is that of a 35-year-old father who was left to starve, as medical staffers did not know how to fit his feeding tube. Other reports included a patient who was unable to feed himself; according to his daughter’s testimony, nurses taunted him by putting his food just out of reach, and then took it away uneaten.}

_{Plaintiff Kim White alleged that one of the last things her father said to her was}_{“Get me out of this hellhole,”}_{and that he was give no morphine despite being in extreme pain during the final days of his life.}

_{Another plaintiff, a former nurse, languished unattended by hospital staff for 11 weeks, and was given medication so powerful that she was unable to speak.}

_{'Normalization of cruelty'}

_{The lawsuit has once again drawn attention to the falling standards of the UK NHS, which has been the target of sweeping austerity measures introduced by the country's Conservative-led government.}

_{Health Secretary Hunt described the accounts of neglect as indicative of a policy of}_{“normalization of cruelty”}_{evident in some of the UK’s worst healthcare institutions. Patients often experience “coldness, resentment, indifference” and “contempt” in NHS hospitals, Hunt said.}

_{Charles, Prince of Wales, wrote an article in the Royal Society of Medicine this week appealing to the NHS to offer more compassionate service, something he said was increasingly lacking in Britain's healthcare system.}

_{Prince Charles argued that NHS care should also encompass the}_{"physical and social environment, education, agriculture and architecture.”}

Edited December 24, 2012 by Steven Gaal

Steven Gaal · January 12, 2013

^{Government Health Care Kills More Brits Than Guns Kill Americans}

^{December 29, 2012 By}^{Daniel Greenfield}

^{In 2011,}^8,583^{Americans were killed}^{with firearms. Meanwhile in the UK, the National Health Service is killing 1,000 people a month}^{or 12,000 a year}^.

^{We’re not talking natural or inevitable deaths, but preventable deaths that were caused by an overburdened and poorly managed health care system.}

^{The study found that something went wrong with the care of 13 per cent of the patients who died in hospitals. An error only led to a death in 5.2 per cent of these cases, which was the equivalent to nearly 12,000 preventable deaths in hospitals in England every year.}

^{13 percent and}^{5 percent of deaths are far}^{higher numbers than anything you will find among gun owners. And}^{here’s what that looks like}^.

^{The Office for National Statistics figures also showed that 43 people who starved to death, 287 people were recorded by doctors as being malnourished when they died in hospitals;}

^{there were 558 cases where doctors recorded that a patient had died in a state of severe dehydration in hospitals}

^{21,696 hospital patients and 1,100 care home residents were suffering from the blood poisoning when they died.}

^{In July, an inquest heard that a young man who died of dehydration at a leading hospital rang 999 for police because he was so thirsty.}

^{And some}^{of this is actually Murder for Pay}

^{Figures disclosed to a newspaper shows that in some cases, hospitals have been set targets that between a third and two thirds of all the deaths should be on the LCP pathway.}

^{It was estimated that at least £30 miillion in extra money from taxpayers had been handed to hospitals over the last three years to achieve the goals}

^{LCP, which involves patients being sedated and most being denied nutrition and fluids by tube, is thought to be used in more than 100,000 cases a year.}

^{Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust revealed through a Freedom of Information request that in the financial year ending in March, the percentage of patients who died on the pathway was “43% against a target of 35%”. Over the year it received £308,000 for achieving “goals involving the Liverpool Care Pathway”.}

^{Perhaps instead of calling for gun control, we should be calling for gov health control before this nightmare comes here.}

Edited January 18, 2013 by Steven Gaal

Steven Gaal · January 18, 2013

Atos told incontinent woman to ‘wear nappy’

Sarah Cassidy

Thursday 17 January 2013

Thousands of sick or disabled people have died after undergoing assessments to find out whether they were fit to work, the House of Commons was told today.

Atos, the firm contracted to conduct work capability assessment (WCA) tests for the Government, was condemned by MPs for “ruthlessly” pressurising sick and disabled people into returning to their jobs.

The debate was told of cases of people who had committed suicide after being stripped of their benefits under the process and of an incontinence sufferer who was told she could return to work wearing a nappy.

Former Labour minister Michael Meacher opened the debate saying that 1,300 people had died after being placed in the “work-related activity group”, for those currently too ill to be employed but expected to start preparing for an eventual return to work.

A further 2,200 died before the assessment process was completed and 7,100 died after being judged to be entitled to unconditional support because they are too ill or disabled to work.

Mr Meacher asked: “Is it reasonable to pressurise seriously disabled persons into work so ruthlessly when there are already 2.5 million people unemployed and, on average, eight persons chasing every vacancy, unless they are also provided with the active and extensive support they obviously need in order to get and to hold down work, which is certainly not the case at present?”

Labour’s Iain Wright, MP for Hartlepool, told MPs that one of his constituents, a woman who suffered from Crohn’s disease, had been told she could wear a nappy to work. “What sort of country have we become, what sort of ethical values does the Government have, if that’s the degrading and crass way in which decent law abiding constituents of mine are being dealt with?” he said.

“All the evidence that I have in my constituency demonstrates that the system is not working and the most vulnerable and ill constituents in Hartlepool are paying the price. The Government is treating my constituents like dirt, it needs to change.”

Shadow Employment minister Stephen Timms said there was no doubt the current arrangements were causing “immense problems and immense anxiety”. He added: “We shouldn’t be allowing this to continue, the system does need fast and fundamental reform.”

Kevan Jones, a former Labour minister, said suicides of claimants who were found fit to work by Atos had been reported. “There are...a number of well-publicised cases where people have taken their own lives because of this system,” he said. “It is not too strong to say that this Coalition Government has blood on their hands for the deaths of those individuals.”

A spokeswoman for Atos Healthcare said: “We know that this can be a difficult process for people and we do all we can to make sure the service we provide is as professional and compassionate as possible. We have been doing this work...for over a decade and our doctors, nurses and physiotherapists are fully trained and experienced, with many coming directly from the NHS.”

Victory in vain: Cancer patient’s fight

Cecilia Burns, 51, from Northern Ireland died last summer shortly after winning her campaign to get her benefits reinstated.

Ms Burns, who was being treated for breast cancer, had her benefits cut by £30 a week after an assessment by Atos. She started a campaign to have the decision overturned but died shortly after the money was reinstated.

Len Colby · January 19, 2013

^{Government Health Care Kills More Brits Than Guns Kill Americans}

^{December 29, 2012 By}^{Daniel Greenfield}

^{In 2011,}^8,583^{Americans were killed}^{with firearms. Meanwhile in the UK, the National Health Service is killing 1,000 people a month}^{or 12,000 a year}^.

According to the cited article "most of the patients who died were elderly and frail and suffering from multiple conditions although some were aged in their 30s and 40s" in other words most probably would have died soon anyway. I guess Gaal and the blogger he cited don't think there aren't preventable deaths in US hospitals or that Americans die prematurely due to inadequate access to healthcare. The doctor who wrote this op-ed obviously is better qualified.

http://www.washingto...0122004669.html

jolly old england,england swings like a pendulum do......La,la la

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