NHS Leaves Pregnant Women in a World of Hurt

Imagine being in pain and going without anesthetics, not because of your religious beliefs, not because you’re stoic, but because there aren’t enough doctors to provide you the care you need. You’re probably picturing a Third World nation with doctors who earn $15 a month before they scrape together the cash to defect to the United States.

You’d be wrong.

Hundreds of British women are being denied epidurals to numb the pain of childbirth because there aren’t enough anesthetists to go around, and this has been going on for at least three years. How will the liberal feminist blogs spin this story?

Here’s what we know about one hospital, the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, courtesy of The Daily Mail:

Women planning to give birth at the hospital, which delivers 1,600 babies a year, are told no epidurals are available because of a lack of senior anaesthetists.

They are needed because the procedure involves injecting a drug directly into the spine.

The failure flouts guidance from four Royal Colleges, including the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians, that women should have access to an epidural within 30 minutes of requesting one.

It adds to mounting concern about the quality of NHS maternity care, with midwives in some hospitals expected to attend to three women in labour at the same time due to staff shortages.

Is this the universal health care Obama and his supporters can believe in?

Hat tip: Bookworm Room

Published by Jenn Q. Public on October 6, 2008 at 3:37 am

Filed Under Health care, Women

Comments

2 Responses to “NHS Leaves Pregnant Women in a World of Hurt”

  1. The 9 Most Asinine Statements by Vile Harpy Joy Behar : Jenn Q. Public on December 24th, 2010 3:01 am

    […] the clever way the NHS deals with a shortage of anesthetists when pregnant women seek epidurals to ease the pain of labor: Hundreds of British women are being […]

  2. 1williams on January 12th, 2022 7:33 pm

    2nativity

Leave a Reply