Death Panels at Work
The UK Sun reports that a woman, 74, died in a UK hospital after wrongly being given a “do not resuscitate” tag. Nurses stood by as she gasped for breath. Earlier, the Telegraph reported that medical teams in UK hospitals routinely issue “do not resuscitate” orders without consulting with families or patients.
How awful.
This is horrible!
Scary post.
This is what Berwick wants to bring to the United States.
This is the exact opposite of how American hospitals operate. It just about takes an act of Congress to get a U.S. hospital to register a DNR order. When my father was in the hospital the ICU nurses’ station refused to accept a hand delivered order but told us we could mail it or fax it to them.
What difference does it make whether the order is faxed or hand delivered? To me, a DNR order is no different from euthanasia.
There is and has never been any such thing as a “death panel” under the Affordable Care Act. Providing a Medicare billing code for doctors to discuss with Medicare beneficiaries end-of-life issues like living wills, durable powers of attorney, and explaining hospice and palliative care cannot be called a “death panel” by any serious or genuine person. Its smart policy and the reason why it enjoyed support from Republicans before it was attached to ObamaCare.
Neither is the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Establishing a board that looks at ways to control Medicare costs — something that Congress is clearly incapable of doing — and clearly banned the panel from making recommendations that will “ration health care, raise revenues or increase Medicare beneficiary premiums, increase Medicare beneficiary cost sharing (deductibles, coinsurance, or co-payments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria” is not a “death panel” either. Again, its smart policy that was maligned for political gain.
Opposition to these things undermines conservative “claims” that they want to control entitlement spending and bring some rationality to a bureaucratic system that pays doctors after people get sick. Conservatives have to get serious if they really want to address these tough issues — lies like “death panels” may win the political argument among low-information voters, but they undermine real progress in this country on addressing these serious problems.
Chris, this article is about British health care where, quite obviously, death panels are at work.
That’s a relief. I thought you were tying the lies about death panels in ObamaCare by somehow suggesting that what happens in Britain is the equivalent. Hadn’t realized that there were actual entities called “Death Panels” in the National Health Service. I stand corrected.
I mean the article clearly states that this behavior is a violation of medical guidelines, meaning that there must be Mobile British Death Panels roving the halls of British hospitals killing old and frail people.
“Under medical guidelines, the orders should only be issued after senior staff have discussed the matter with the patient’s family. A form, signed by two doctors, is then placed in the patient’s notes to record what decision was taken.”