Britain’s National Health Services’ plans to “avert a funding crisis” by cutting doctors’ and nurses’ salaries by around 5 percent, along with some receiving cuts in overtime and vacation, have been leaked.
The organization representing Britain’s doctors and nurses, the British Medical Association, has yet to reveal whether they will pursue a second strike in months in response to the news. They went on strike for the first time in 40 years earlier this year after changes to their pensions were announced. From the Daily Mail:
But Jeannett Martin of the Royal College of Nursing said such proposals could damage morale in the NHS further, with ‘serious implications for the recruitment and retention of staff . . . [and] patient care’.
A BMA spokesman said: ‘This is not how successful and sustainable efficiencies are going to be achieved.’
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) was caught on video by Breitbart’s Rebel Pundit while outside the Supreme Court waiting for the Obamacare decision. On the tape, she expresses admiration for the idea of doctors unionizing–and referred to how “health outcomes were better” when the doctors went on strike in Israel.
[Video removed because it was autorun. You can see it at this link.]
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Comments
The term ObamaCare is about used up. ObamaTAX has some legs.
But I like DeathPanelCare as a new term to focus people on reality.
I like Shovel Ready Health Care.
Shovel ready health insurance. It has nothing to do with “care.”
“I like Shovel Ready Health Care.”
LOL!
Yeah, stimulate the economy by digging a whole bunch of 6-feet-deep holes.
We’re gonna need some bigger cemeteries.
Heh, better health outtages?
Sounds somewhat like Michael Moore’s response to DC power outage.
Hey, still without
power in DC areahealthcare? Have you bashed unions in the past? Well, then you’re gettingwhatdeathpanel u deserve.As a doc you have my promise that I’ll never go on strike. And I won’t join a union. That’s the difference between us and the Brit docs.
PS: the obnoxious embedded commercial plays automatically and can’t be turned off.
Picture if you will.. err They have WAYS to make you…
A doc friend of mine was forced to reapply for licensure to bill Medicaid and Medicare.
Force to work for free for eight months while he maneuvered the gov’t bureaucracy to reattain something he had held for 20 years… or lose his practice/patients.
In Obama’s mind that’s probably a feature..
-an efficiency savings.
My father was a surgeon. I asked him once when the best time to practice medicine was…he said in the ’60s before the profession was drowned in paperwork.
You say you won’t go on strike, but will you retire? How bad does it have to get? At this point, it’s a discussion point; at some point it may be reality.
Good for you, doc. Only problem is, the stupid NURSES are unionized in many States like mine, and they walked out on their patients just 2 years ago. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Media/thousands-nurses-strike-minnesota/story?id=10875712#.UARHj3DevOw
I personally thought they should all be fired and immediately replaced, but I’m one of those nuts that think the patient should come first.
The Docs in the US are already going on strike as many just refuse to accept Medicare and Medicaid..As soon as the annual Doc fix is not re-enacted, the amount of Docs running for the exit will make Medicare a joke. Patients may have coverage but there will be no one to perform the service. One of the most important issue that needs to be addressed in Health care reform is making the “doc fix” permanent. A simple question. Who is going to work if it ends up costing more to work than what one actually earns…
Going Galt
I have already gone Galt…I may leave the Gultch when the smoke clears in 2013….
I work at a university. Our hospital is the #2 provider of Medicaid services for our state (behind only the county hospital in our big city). It’s a point of pride for the faculty that we take care of our share of the poor, but it cost my hospital $32 million dollars last year.
It gets worse if ObamaCare (oops, sorry, the ACA, now I wouldn’t want to be racist, now would I) goes through, since more people get dumped into Medicaid, Medicare rates are cut (again), and people will get dumped out of their private insurance.
The result of course is that now in the last decade the university has been working to limit its exposure to Medicaid. It’s painful but we have to pay our bills. If ACA goes through we’ll have to start limiting our exposure to Medicare.
My doctor has a huge sign on the front door: WE DO NOT ACCEPT MEDICARE OR MEDICAID.
It’s already happening.
My Dad didn’t accept Medicaid patients 40 years ago. You never get paid.
What with the obnoxious commercials? Man, please kill these ads.
Certainly not a Doctor/Surgeon, but is there anyway to surgically remove the left arm of politics?
And if so, would a prosthetic be an improvement?
Jus’ askin’..
I envision the ballot box to have a guillotine blade….
No prosthetic…they’ll have phantom limb syndrome anyway.
Just hit the pause button twice to shut off the video until it gets fixed.
Couple of good points ^^up there and its interesting to get info/percepions from folks that actually work in the field. Ive long thught that the AMA is one of the very few professional organizations that doesnt seem to “bow” to political pressures…at least thats my perception. The group essentially self polices itself and writes itsown standards for schooling etc without government instruction. Id hate to see the day when government gets involved in the education framework to the point the profession is somehow “cheapened” by government intrusion around standards etc. So far as our Doctors here? I cant imagine any real benefit to a formal union. As suggested they have the ultimate ability to simply say no to government demands.
Whats goernment going to do? Take away their licenses?
And then what.
Some good points, Jim. One correction though…The AMA does not even represent 20 % of Docs in the US. In fact, the AMA is a VERY POLITICAL association that actually supported obamacare for their own monetary gains…
Thanks..and wow. I had no idea.
Because nothing shouts out, “Quality health care!” like the idea of unionizing doctors.
Watch for the stampede rush by Great Britain’s young best and brightest to pursue a career in health care! When some 82% of American doctors polled say the specter of ObamaCare has made them mull over giving up the practice of medicine, at this rate, soon a couple dozen doctors using remotely controlled intuitive surgical machines will be very busy beavers providing surgical services to the world’s people.
They’d better start learning to operate two or three machines at the same time!
“Health outcomes were better” when the doctors went on strike??
I’ve heard of shooting yourself in the foot before, but with a bazooka?
Maybe she should retract that … or, at least rephrase it.
LukeHandCool (who has had a persistent pain in the back of his head for months now. He kept thinking it would go away. It hasn’t. His wife is now insisting he get it checked out. He finally agrees. But not until after his vacation is over. Because, if he’s going to learn he’s a goner, he doesn’t want to know while he’s on vacation).
I have a prediction to make:
Romney wins in November: Headache goes away without medical intervention.
Obummer wins in November: Doctor initially proscribes one of Obummer’s little pills for pain knowing it will be months of waiting around for tests before the cause can be determined. In the mean time Obummercare comes online in CA and LHC is shuffled from doctor to doctor with months of waiting time in between. Due to cost cuts, LHC’s care is outsourced and finally after years of waiting for a diagnosis, LHC’s treating physician recommends amputation from the neck up to treat the condition, never finding the cause of the pain.
LOL!!
I’ll amputate my own head if Obama wins reelection!
Could we please have a moratorium on Jan the Communist videos? She’s going to be like Sid Yates and not disappear until she’s ancient…. Too many limousine liberals in Winnetka….
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
I had a minor day-surgery procedure a while back, and my prep nurse was from Scotland. Her husband works for a US oil-service company, and he was offered a job here in Houston.
She told me there is no comparison from either a job satisfaction or a compensation standpoint between the US and the UK’s NHS. She said that she makes almost double what she did in the HNS, but to her, the great thing about working in the US is that, “The patient gets what they need, not merely what we can give!”
The last thing she told me was, “You do not want socialized medicine in America!”
I firmly believe that if the average American could spend some time in these “social democracies,” they would lose their ardor for all aspects of socialism.
What is it like in the black areas ? I am thinking there would be a wide range of service quality within Houston .
The scots know a thing or two about hereditary health & poverty . Some of the best studies on the subject are from Scotland . For instance how children who survived rheumatiod fever in Glaswegian slums of the 40s -60s grew up to have heart afflictions. The very essence (dna ) that gave them immunity led to other problems.
Scotland has benefited from a nation wide focus combined with their clan /strong locality based roots. A 1990s study looked at 2 different health regions on the wide divergent breast cancer survivor rates. Taking the policies (interdisciplinary management panel as against personal GP directed ) found the “death Panel ” was actually the GP.
Not all things are bad in scotland NHS. I would like to add that the Scots have a hatred of the medical fraternity even if they did invent ether. Or maybe because!
Need to expand a bit there. Scots have never forgiven their medical fraternity from treating them like paupers & less than human . At some point Scotland led the way including bodysnatching & gruesome medical experiments on the locals. At some time the medical fraternity turned against the people & became for profit only.
Find yourself a pre NHS Scot & let them rip !
Over the weekend, I was with a doctor friend and we were talking about Obamacare. She’s a lifelong Democrat who voted for Obama in the last election. I asked her what she her opinion was and her answer surprised me.
She said that there was no doubt that care would be rationed and many doctors would stop practicing. She actually got angry because she thought she was sold out by her own party. She was going to be voting for Romney without any hesistation. And she was voting for every Republican that supported repeal that was on the ballot here in Pa.
Then I had to laugh because she started putting the full court press on me to vote for Romney. Obama thinks that we are stupid and jut needed to hear how Obamacare would enhance our lives. But the truly smart people are also against itbecause they see a domino effect happening.
I am going to get her a Romney for President bumper sticker! One more vote for you Mitt.
Careful. If she lives in Philly, someone might tolerantly vandalize her vehicle. 🙄
1) In my county, doctors pretty much stopped taking new patients over the age of 35 within a week of Obamacare passing. The theory is that they would be retired before having those patients go on Medicare. Out of their sense of ethics, they will keep their current patients as they go on Medicare.
2) A significant fraction of the doctors have gone to cash only, and a number of doctors are retiring. We are a rural county and the pool of available doctors is not that large.
3) It is affecting Med Students too. A friend of one of my daughters got her undergrad degree in Biochem from MIT, with honors. After 9/11, upon graduation, she did several years working for an agency of the US government, got a masters in the process, and now is in the second year of Med School. She is considering either chucking it all and going into another field, or moving overseas to practice. Her medical education debt is a factor. She is one of the lucky ones, because her undergraduate degree was paid for by a full ride scholarship, and Uncle paid for her Masters.
The stream of new doctors will be restricted right smartly depending on the election and aftermath.
4) stevewhitemd | July 16, 2012 at 11:17 am
You may not go on strike, but what happens when you retire? The medical system in Britain has been under control of the State for better than half a century. Several generations of doctors and nurses have known nothing but being state bureaucrats and having that be a greater determinant of care than any obligation to patients.
A daughter of mine studying in Britain got to see it first hand. It was not pretty. Quality of patient care at Chelsea and Westminister Hospital [one of the newest and “best” in Britain, in the upscale Kensington neighborhood of London] is not even a factor.
When Medicine is no longer any more of a profession than being a unionized grocery clerk; yeah they will strike.
Subotai Bahadur
Subotai, I get your point. I am 56 years old. I have about a decade or so left unless Obama seizes my 401K, then I’ll have to work until I die.
Yes, the young docs are going to have it rougher. I see an attitude change in the current trainees — they’re dedicated and want to take care of patients, all right. Until their ‘shift is over’. Then they walk away. The docs in my generation aren’t like that.
I suppose that a half-century of state intervention could bring about docs who join a union, nurses who get frustrated at what the state gives, and a system that pays for aroma therapy but not for needed surgery.
Just more reasons why ObamaCare has to be crushed this November: Romney + 60 + 218.
A few of the patient “rights” under the lunatic-left d-cRAT socialist healthcare nationalization, rationing, taxation and abortion atrocity:
1. you have a “right” to be taxed to death if you don’t pay for government-run obozocare
2. you have a “right” to be put into prison if you don’t pay the IRS penalty for not getting obozocare
3. you have a “right” to go without medical care when ALL doctors refuse to take any new patients under obozocare.
4. you have a “right” to pay for your obozocare out of your own pocket when your employer cancels your healthcare.
5. you have a “right” to die when the obozocare death panel refuses your treatment
Be afraid – be very afraid – of d-cRAT socialist healthcare.
The OBOZOCARE healthcare nationalization, rationing, abortion and taxation atrocity IS THE BIGGEST TAX INCREASE ON THE MIDDLE CLASS IN AMERICAN HISTORY…
Note: 30 June 2012, Stephen Moore, Senior Economics Writer with the Wall Street Journal: 75% OF OBAMACARE COSTS WILL FALL ON BACKS OF THOSE MAKING LESS THAN $120K A YEAR – “It’s a big punch in the stomach to middle class families. In 2016, an estimated 4 MILLION Americans will have to pay the mandate OBOZOTAX.” Moore’s analysis has been confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office, which NOW projects that OBOZOCARE will cost $2.6 TRILLION over its first decade, thus adding huge amounts to the US deficit and national debt.
I had a baby in a public hospital during a nurses strike. & one not during a strike. It never is a full strike – they just do things a little different or at their own pace or you have to get your own sheets or something. Almost all of the patients & visitors pitched in & I don’t recall any problems.
In fact I seem to recall the one with the strike as being more fun.
The only helpless people in a hospital are those immediately after surgery for a short time , the unconscious or the ICU & the almost dead. Everybody should get up & do their bit.
The absolute biggest help is to go to the bathroom yourself . Relatives & friends ought help with the feeding & personal care.
The best thing is to avoid hospitals for as long as possible & then get out as quick as you can.
Dying at home is an even bigger help !
But then again – the study of the Glaswegian funeral workers. Most Scottish die at home & the industry loves cancer patients 7 just hates heart attack deaths.
The undertakers have to go up narrow windy stairs to the bedrooms upstairs. The cancer peeps are almost always mestatsized & weigh little but the heart attackers are almost always big & fat.& weigh a ton.
Think of the big picture -it isn’t just about you.
[…] If elected Obama would bring that type of ruin to America. He is in denial about the financial implications of endless open-ended government as are the heads of these European […]
better pay attention,seiu is getting a very large footprint into the health-care system already.
hope it’s not me or mine needing care when they go on strike,to make health-care the same as all other public sector unions,we need more benifits,and higher wages for the patiences of course.