Recently in the UK has pledged that if you go to the emergency room, you will be seen by a doctor in less than 4 hours… …Well, not only is that an incredibly long time to wait when you are horribly sick, but the UK hospitals can’t even get some patients in under the 4 hour time limit!!!
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But of course since the government in the UK PLEDGED the 4 hour (or less) wait, they have to find some way to make sure all patients don’t “wait” longer than four hours for medical care.
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Well, they found a way… …It is called “PATIENT STACKING” …….Now patient stacking is basically adding another waiting line…. ….What happens is, instead of immediately taking the patient right into the ER when the ambulance arrives to be seen by a doctor, they keep the patient INSIDE the ambulance until they know the patient can be seen by a doctor in under the 4 hour time limit………. .…yes, this is true…the Union that represents the Ambulance workers has stated it happens often.
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Some patients have had to wait in the ambulance for up to FIVE HOURS before they could go into the hospital where they could end up waiting an additional 4 hours.
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Now not only is this bad for the patient waiting for care, but it is also bad for other people who NEED the ambulances because they can’t get one, because all the ambulances are parked outside the hospital with sick people inside.
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The worst example of this waiting problem is the tragic story of Luke Galamore…. Luke was a 16-year-old leukemia patient. His local doctor requested an Immediate transfer to intensive care calling it, quote “EXTREMELY urgent and absolutely critical.” He waited an entire hour, contacted the ambulance services multiple times to request transportation…..the ambulances all were full of patients waiting to get INTO the hospital……… ….Without anyone to come and pick him up, Luke slipped into a coma and died 16 days later.
…….This story here isn’t some extreme horror story or isolated incident… …….Hospitals and ambulance crews reported more than 43,000 ambulance delays of more than 1 hour in the last 15 months alone.
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In many countries in Europe the average waiting time at hospitals is stretching into HOURS.
In Canada, many of their ER’s are so over crowded and under-staffed that at one hospital the average wait time is nearly 1 DAY (22 hours)…..All over Canada the wait times are even longer than those in Europe…… ….Canada has such a huge problem, that they are forced to send thousands of ER patients down the United States to receive care.
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With the waiting time in US hospitals mere minutes, maybe it is time we start severely examining socialized medicine.
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What do you think? Give me your opinion