I've got a lot to say about socialized medicine and I will have more posts coming soon. I practiced in the UK for 6 months and have first-hand experience.
This is a link to some poor guy in Ireland that needed the wax removed from his ear. It takes about 30 seconds to remove ear wax. I've done the procedure and had it done to me. It's a gross fact of life that some people accumulate wax in their ears. The wax forms a plug across the eardrum; you can't hear and it's painful. The doctor uses a small suction to pull the wax out. Relief is immediate, complications rare.
There is no excuse for the crap Brian went through. Any competent GP should cure him immediately. In the US, you'd see your Ear/Nose/Throat (ENT) doctor and be cured at the first visit.
One of the cost cutting methods of socialized medicine is to force the patient to go through "gate keepers" - these are doctors paid to keep you from getting appropriate care. The idea of having people screened to insure that they are getting appropriate care is not the problem. The problem is that the subsequent referral is so long in the UK. Part of the cost cutting methods that socialized medicine uses is delaying treatment long enough that about 15% of the patients either die, move, or pay for a private clinic to take care of them. In the US we expect to be seen, evaluated and cured within a day or two.
Are you willing to wait up to a year to have your gallbladder removed, you knee 'scoped, or your hernia fixed?
Original source: http://doctorrant.wordpress.com/?p=38
