Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: They’d all rather you stop wasting money and just die.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Free healthcare means lack of adequate care… but there’s always the alternative of just dying.
“The family of Cleo Gratton, an 84-year-old retired diamond driller who died earlier this month in Chelmsford, Ontario, of natural causes after being approved for assisted suicide, is speaking publicly about their appalling experience in the Canadian healthcare system.
“According to the CBC, the elderly man ‘told his family he would rather die than go back to Health Sciences North in Sudbury,’ and that a recent stay there found Gratton, who was suffering from heart disease and kidney failure, spending one night in the emergency room and then being transferred to a bed sitting in the hallway on the seventh floor.
“‘There were no lights, all the bulbs in that hallway had been completely removed,’ his daughter, Lynn, told the CBC. ‘The only light we had was almost like a desk lamp that had been bolted to the wall. Patients are passing by, nurses are going by, no privacy, no compassion, no dignity.’ The visit took place in mid-October, after which Gratton decided to apply for ‘medical aid in dying,’ or assisted suicide.
“Lynn said that nurses had to use headlamps to inspect her father’s feet, and that the experience was ‘just one thing after another and it really opened our eyes to what’s going on in our hospitals. My dad said, “Push, push, push for change. Make people aware of what’s gong on. Open the discussion, bring it to your MP, your MPP, keep going straight up.”’
“His family is now honoring his wishes to speak out about his experience. The doctors and nurses, Lynn emphasized, were ‘amazing,’ but she noted that they seem overworked. ‘Why are they still taking in patients if we have an overcrowding issue and they have no place to put these people?’ she said.”
In the U.K. the vaunted NHS will happily see you dead, and hospices have no funds.
“Some 380 hospice beds out of around 2,000 lie empty in England because of financial pressures, say bosses.
“Hospice UK has told BBC News this is up from 300 a year ago and illustrates the severe challenges facing the sector.
“Beds are left empty to save money – since staffing and caring is costly – and so are unavailable to patients.
“Hospices are run by charities, raising between two-thirds and three-quarters of their income from donations and private fund raising. They depend on the rest from the NHS, and managers say this funding has not kept pace with costs, such as employer national insurance.
“Hospice leaders say their organisations are ‘on the brink of a financial crisis’”
In Australia, they don’t support the disabled, unless its to support patients dying.
“A Queensland man with Motor Neurone Disease has chosen to access voluntary assisted dying after being denied support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme because of his age, reigniting concerns about Australia’s two-tier approach to disability and aged care.
“Tony Lewis is 71. Diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease last year, he falls outside the eligibility criteria for the NDIS, which excludes people diagnosed after the age of 65. Instead, he must rely on the aged care system, where funding levels and response times are widely acknowledged as inadequate for fast progressing neurological conditions.”
TTFN.
