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Are these healthcare horror stories from Britain a sign of things to come?

Mr Wattson, 35, had his first appendectomy on Tuesday, July 7, after being told that his appendix was the cause of abdominal pain he had suffered for several months. He said that doctors informed him that the procedure had gone well. He was discharged the next day. Yet a month later, Mr Wattson was taken to hospital after collapsing in Swindon town centre. He was told by doctors at Great Western Hospital--where his original operation had taken place--that his appendix had burst and that he needed an emergency appendectomy. He was readmitted for surgery and released following the second--successful--operation on August 9. The Telegraph reports that Wattson "claims that he lost his job because his employers did not believe that he needed to have the operation twice." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6087818/Mans-appendix-ruptures-a-month-after-it-was-removed-in-hospital.html The Daily Mail, meanwhile, reports that "thousands of women are having to give birth outside maternity wards because of a lack of midwives and hospital beds": The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk as births in locations ranging from lifts to toilets--even a caravan--went up 15 per cent last year to almost 4,000. Health chiefs admit a lack of maternity beds is partly to blame for the crisis, with hundreds of women in labour being turned away from hospitals because they are full. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209034/The-babies-born-hospital-corridors-Bed-shortage-forces-4-000-mothers-birth-lifts-offices-hospital-toilets.html

Public Comments

1. Its not just the quality of health care that will go down, its the cost will skyrocket. The government cant do anything without corruption, local, state, federal.
2. You mean about how right-wing lunatics are going to cherry pick and distort Britain's NHS, which is superior to our health care system, to scare Americans out of voting for their own interests? Yes, probably. Government care is better care. I don't care what your dogma tells you - the evidence is on my side. It's also cheaper, by the way. The insurance industry adds NOTHING to health care - it makes things more expensive by delaying necessary care and taking 25% profit off the top. Arguments to the contrary are lies and nonsense.
3. In the UK there were 693,611 births in 2007 (the latest data available). If 4000 births were outside a maternity ward, that gives us less than .06%. For 2006 (the latest *AMERICAN* data available) .9% of all births were not in a hospital! There were 4,265,555 births in the US. That gives us about 38,389 births outside a hospital. Sounds like the NHS is doing a pretty good job. Let's deal with reality. people. The US health insurance industry already rations health care, and that's if you're lucky enough to afford it. As for your other story, it's WEAK. Compare the number of mistakes made in the US before even trying to make an educated comparison. *FAIL*