Shame over Britain`s free healthcare system

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling says she was greatly influenced by her sensitive mother Anne. Her father was a blue-collar factory worker but her mother loved books and urban life. When J.K. was 13, her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and ended up in a wheelchair with shaky hands. Anne Rowling never saw her daughter’s phenomenal success and died at age 45. She suffered from the disease for 10 years without nursing care, not to mention a doctor’s. After watching her mother dying, the author donated 10 million British pounds to the University of Edinburgh for multiple sclerosis research in 2010.

The National Health Service is a source of pride for the U.K., so much so that it had a performance in the opening ceremony of last year`s London Summer Olympics. The agency was established in 1948 based on the Beveridge Report, an influential policy document aimed to provide “from cradle to the grave” welfare. Funding comes not from insurance premiums but taxpayers’ money. For everyone to get medical care regardless of income would be ideal, but quality of medical service would pose a problem. All British hospitals are state-run and doctors are government officials. If a patient wants to see a doctor, he or she must get on the waiting list and wait least six months to two or three years. Rowling`s mother waited too long and died without getting treatment.

The British government on Wednesday released a report on conditions at Stafford Hospital in Staffordshire over a 50-month period from 2005, and found at least 400 to 1,200 patients died due to improper treatment. Certain patients left lying in their own urine and excrement while others were so thirsty that they drank water from vases. How such things happened in a developed country of the 21st century is simply unbelievable. In 2004, a 40-something nurse in the U.K. injected an anesthetic into an elderly patient who was unlikely to revive and led the patient die after disconnecting the respirator. The nurse said she wanted to free up beds as soon as possible, but was charged with manslaughter.

The Stafford mishaps occurred in the course of the U.K. reforming free healthcare, rather than free healthcare itself. Hospitals can be operated independently without government control if they meet certain requirements of the National Health Service such as financial expenditures. To meet the requirements, the Stafford hospital had to cut 10 million pounds from its 2006 and 2007 budgets and lay off 150 medical staff. The price was eventually paid by patients. The scandal clearly shows where the British health watchdog stands. British Prime Minister David Cameron, in admitting that the root of the problem lies in free healthcare, said, “I apologize for the National Health Service’s terrible failure.” Korean politicians who clamor for free healthcare in their election pledges should learn a lesson from the Stafford fiasco.

Editorial Writer Chung Sung-hee (shchung@donga.com)