What passes for health care these days in the UK keeps going from bad to worse. The latest bad news is a surge in deaths caused by hospital acquired infection. From The Guardian story:
A 72% increase in deaths linked to the hospital superbug Clostridium difficile was disclosed yesterday by the Office for National Statistics.
It said the infection, which causes severe diarrhoea among patients whose resistance has been weakened by antibiotics, was mentioned on 6,480 death certificates in England and Wales in 2006, compared with 3,757 in 2005. More than half registered C difficile as the underlying cause of death and the rest mentioned it as a contributory factor.
The response of the NHS is typically weak:
David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, yesterday held a “cleanliness summit”, saying he would publish hospitals’ individual MRSA infection rates.
You think the USA’s people see health care as an election issue? Just imagine being a British voter!
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