Open Thread

October 20th, 2009 9:18 AM

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: the British media know the cost of health care rationing. From the London Times:

Hazel Fenton, from East Sussex, is alive nine months after medics ruled she had only days to live, withdrew her antibiotics, and denied her artificial feeding. The former school matron had been placed on a controversial care plan intended to ease the last days of dying patients.

Doctors say Fenton is an example of patients who have been condemned to death on the Liverpool care pathway plan. They argue that while it is suitable for patients who do have only days to live, it is being used more widely in the NHS, denying treatment to elderly patients who are not dying.

Will the American press pick up on the trend and report on the numerous such instances of the NHS 'pulling the plug on granny'?