[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 118 (Friday, July 31, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H9211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE BRITISH HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IS UNHEALTHY

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, government-run health care has been 
around in England for over 60 years. In those years, the government 
still hasn't gotten it right.
  In March, Britain's Health Care Commission, which has ironically been 
renamed the Care Quality Commission, reported that 1,200 people have 
died needlessly at two British hospitals over the past 3 years.
  The government report said that Stafford Hospital and Cannock Chase 
Hospital have filthy conditions and unhygienic practices. The 
government report says government-run hospitals don't have enough 
doctors and nurses and the doctors and nurses are poorly trained. They 
don't know how to use the cardiac monitors, and the hospitals don't 
even have enough of the cardiac monitors that they don't know how to 
operate. The British Government report also says that these two 
government-run hospitals have left patients with no food, no water and 
no medicine for up to 4 days.
  Mr. Speaker, this is just another example that government-run health 
care has not worked. Doctors and nurses are rationed; care is rationed; 
medicine, food and water are rationed. The British health care plan is: 
``Just don't get sick'' because the government-run system can't help 
you.
  And that's just the way it is.

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