While people fixate on Kanye West’s drunken outburst at the VMA’s last night, remember that he wasn`t the only bozo in the room. The other was British comedian Russell Brand, and worse – he was sober. He had no excuse.
When he wasn’t talking about his genitals – Brand joked about the differences between Britain and the US, saying, “instead of letting people die in the street, we have free health care.”
Well, he’s right.
Britain doesn’t let people die in the street. It lets them die in the hospital.
According to a report from last January`s Nursing Times, NHS hospital patient deaths due to errors have soared 60% in a single year period. Even scarier, according the Telegraph, nine of ten preventable deaths under government care are not even reported. Of the roughly 72,000 deaths in the NHS each year, only 3,200 are noted by the National Patient Safety Agency.
But if that`s not enough for you, I give you two words.
Harold Shipman.
You remember him – he was not only a British doctor but perhaps the world’s most prolific serial killer, with nearly 220 murders attributed to him. While practicing medicine in England for over twenty years, he systematically executed patients he deemed unworthy of living. He went undetected because the idea of older, healthier patients dying in British hospitals didn’t seem out of the ordinary. It was the way things, or people, go.
According to recent data, the survival rates in Britain for major cancers are among the worst in Europe. Meanwhile, nurses and doctors are abandoning their professions because the private sector means a better life. And for more examples, just walk the streets of London and “mind the gap.” I’m not talking about the subway platforms, but all the space between teeth.
This is why the only people more frightened than Americans of socialized medicine are the people who already have it. I lived in Britain for three years, and can verify that folks like Brand did not take advantage of Britain’s illustrious health care. No, they paid out of pocket to private docs, because they knew they wouldn’t end up dead on a gurney parked in an empty hallway.
Look, Russell Brand can be absolutely hilarious at times – but when he’s talking politics, he becomes the joke. He should stick to grabbing his crotch – at least there, the consequences are small.
Tonight, what a show: Lauren Sivan, Reshma Shetty, Mary Katherine Ham, and Diablo Cody!