Hospitals across the country are imposing minimum waiting times - delaying the treatment of thousands of patients.
After years of Government targets pushing them to cut waiting lists, staff are now being warned against "over-performing" by treating patients too quickly.
[...]
In March, Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, offered her apparent blessing for the minimum waiting times by announcing they would be "appropriate" in some cases. Amid fears about £1.27 billion of NHS debts, she expressed concern that some hospitals were so productive "they actually got ahead of what the NHS could afford".
[...]
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, added that the minimum waiting times shed new light on the Government's target that patients should wait no longer than six months. "It is outrageous that the purpose of the Government's targets is not so much to drive down waiting times, as to impose a six-month wait."
[...]
Douglas Seaton, 60, a consultant physician who worked with the restraints of the minimum waiting times before retiring from Ipswich Hospital in June, said: "In the last year, we have seen disastrous strains. The senior managers are following political instructions. The Government is holding the reins and it is not working."
[...]
Doctors are also resigning. One gynecologist said that he spent more time doing sudoku puzzles than treating patients because of the measures.
Oh yes, single-payer health care works so well.
This is definitely what we need here in America. Since, you know, it's working out so well for the Europeans.