Before proceeding too far into this, please note - this is snark. Also, I've had a shit 24 hours.
My partner is a doctor. We live in New Zealand. Where we live we have a two tiered system. we have public GP's and other physicians which are subsidised and then a hospital system that is fully paid for by the government. In addition we have other privatised hospitalised systems that you can chose insurance and coverage for. We (my partner and I) are advocates for public health care. Unfortunately in his specialty public health care means treating the 3% most ill. There is a need for help for the other 97%. So he opened his private practice.
Here is a reality check. Doctors get depressed. Particularly doctors in the mental health profession. Particularly when they are getting fucked up the ass by a good old boy system that protects it's own and hates outsiders.
Saturday night (our time) my partner decided to try to take his life.
I called the ambulance. They arrived and started administering treatment for the overdose that he had taken. He unfortunately did know what to take and in the amounts to take. Luckily I called early enough. We were taken to hospital via ambulance as my partner vomited and his heart rate plummeted into the 30's.
We arrived at the main city hospital and we brought into the main triage centre which was calm and collected, and new. No older than 5 years. The equipment looked in good condition. The nurses were extremely competent, professional, and personable, as were the doctors. After 90 minutes in ER he was sent to ICU. The ICU unit is brand new. Each bay is well equipped with necessary equipment. Having spent some time in ICU myself (GWU in DC) - George Washington Univ Hospital operated by URS) I was able to make some ready comparisons. GWU sucked. One of the immediate things that impressed me is that each patient had a nurse seated at the equivalent of a lecturn at the end of the their bed, noting every change in condition. When I was at GWU my nurse was out of sight, difficult to summon etc.
So what was the failure?
Not a single damned TV. when I was at GWU I got moved at least 3 times. Each room had a fully equipped cable in every room. My partner didn't have a single tv to watch. I had to bring his ipod for entertainment. This is what the socialists want us to have - an ICU so boring that we have no option but to revert to reading or learning what our doctors and nurses are doing. And here is why government healthcare cannot succeed. I want my damn MTV!
My thanks to all of the people at our hospital and their professionalism and care. It has been a terrible 24 hours. My thanks to my friends and our doctors. Do not buy into the new bullshit argument that doctor's pay is to blame for healthcare overruns. Looks at the CEO salaries of the top healthcare companies. We're talking over $100 million dollars. How many procedures does that pay for? How many doctors does that pay for?
Thank god among all of the questions to be consdiered - payment is not one of them. At the end of all of this our bill will be $0.00.