So you go into labor, and, having had two babies. you know this one’s coming right now, and you know you need an ambulance. The government bureaucrat answering the phone knows better than you and tells you to get dressed and walk to the hospital because you don’t really need an ambulance because, after all, you had nine months to find a ride to the hospital.
Of course, the baby didn’t know that the government bureacrat knew better, so she came right out, on the sidewalk. Luckily a physical therapist was there to help.
The Daily Mail has the details: Woman gives birth on pavement ‘after being refused ambulance’
“I went into the bath and realised she was going to come quickly. I didn’t think I’d be able to make it out of the bath, so I phoned the maternity ward back and told them to get an ambulance out.
‘They said they were not sending an ambulance and told me I had had nine months to sort out a lift.’
Niiiice….
But hey, the hospital doesn’t need to apologize!
Today a spokeswoman for the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said: ‘We are disappointed that Ms Blake was not happy with the advice and care she received and will of course investigate any complaint.
‘We are pleased that both Ms Blake and her daughter are well and healthy.’
It’s Mrs. Blake’s fault she’s “not happy”. I wouldn’t be surprised if the hospital sends Mrs Blake a bill for the physical therapist’s fee. After all, who needs a physical therapist for having a baby?
Via The Astute Bloggers.
UPDATE: British healthcare decides when you’re giving birth, part 2
It doesn’t matter if you’re already in labor, they send you home because they say you’re not ready: Father turned away from hospital with pregnant wife delivers baby on bathroom floor – and saves his daughter’s life
Tony and wife Rebecca, 33, were staying in Wilmslow, Cheshire, when she started having contractions.
They rushed to St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, but Rebecca was told she wasn’t ready, despite being 38 weeks into the pregnancy.
As Don Surber points out, that’s how the NHS saves money.
Yes, can hardly wait for us Yanks to get socialized crap like you guys under our moron President Obama so we too can share the same frustrations!
And anyone who disagrees with publicly funded health care is an idiot. Riiiiiiiight. Yup, I’m just a blubbering idiot for wanting to have my baby in a hospital in the MATERNITY ward rather than on a sidewalk or in my bathroom. Why do we even have maternity wards I wonder? Certainly Britain has proved we don’t really need them; they are a luxury of the pampered. AND the sidewalk lady was having her THIRD baby, way too many to be within moral bounds. Why can’t she stick to one or two like “normal” people?
Pregnant women and their husbands are just a bunch of over-emotional, selfish whiners, clearly.
Can we see here people the lack of freedom that comes with government control? Can we see the lack of quality care? Can we see the lack of CARE? There is no “care” just “health management”. Don’t kid yourself, government will never care about you, and they won’t manage your health very well either.
I don’t know what the fuss is. Home births are perfectly safe, as evidenced by the fact that the dad still managed to deliver a healthy baby despite the umbilical cord being wrapped around its neck.
And my sarc closing tag disappeared. Heaven help us if anyone thought I was being serious.
Oh no, a few more anecdotes about horrible British healthcare. As if you couldn’t find similar stories about any other healthcare system, including ours. By the way, did anyone notice that the system proposed here is nothing at all like the NHS? Didn’t think so.
Scared!
I’m too mortified for words. I could not even imagine having to deliver my baby on a public sidewalk w/only the help of a passing stranger, especially after calling the hospital to ask for assistance.
That is an odd defense john posits considering that the liberals are up in arms trying to defend a part of the reform that, “…is nothing at all like the NHS?” Yet they, Krugman, Klein, etc., define that part of the bill as its guts of the reform measure and the proverbial camel’s nose. The public option described in the bill sure looks like single-payer in that you will be taxed and then the government will make up the difference out of the general fund. If Obama and the acolytes are now saying that the public option is not necessary then what in the bill is so important that solutions can’t be found incrementally.
http://tinyurl.com/nu5a2t
What makes anyone think that Obamacare would be *ANY* higher quality than the healthcare the government *ALREADY* provides? You know, those amazingly wonderful military and VA systems?
I’d like to require all proponents of government-run healthcare use the military system for a couple years and then see how many still favor the idea…
do you really think that this is the only thing that happens My family live in England. My mother DIED because of the waiting list for treatment for cancer buy the time they got to her it was to late my Father was 75 Worked 6 days a week all his life his intestines split I was in the US by then. They put him on the death word with his intestines in a bag and put him in a coma my sister told me they couldn’t do anything for him. I asked my Dr hear and he told me what could be done so I called the hospital and talked to the Dr He told me he couldn’t do it we had a argument and I told him I would have my lawyer on Him and the hospital and that is when he told me THAT THE BRITISH HEALTH CARE HAS A POLICY OF NOT SPENDING OVER 8,000 pound ON PEOPLE OVER 65. They go to the death wards I asked one thing from him to leave my Father his dignity and put his intestines back inside him. and just make sure he was not in pain. and that my sisters will be monitoring that. That is National health for you. and worse ask the people not the news or the MPs.
John 60 hospitals are being closed in england as we type and they are in the smaller towns with the closures go the ambulances therefore no way to get to the hospital in the bigger towns look it up for yourself. second 90 something deaths this year because of unclean hospitals look it up for yourself. In my home town of Blackburn Lances AMBULANCES have had to be rigged out with interns and its like a rolling emergency room its self. As it is taking anywhere from 30 to 45 mins to get the patients into the emergency room Look it up its all on the net. This is what the US is wanting I cant understand why the people really want it I know why the government do. Its one of the bigest money makers for the British government in kickbacks you will find. it funds a great deal of other government projects and if it went back to being privet a great many of the British offshoot projects would collapse and problems for the MPs in England