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Doctors To Breathalyse Smokers Before Allowing Them NHS Surgery (bbc.com)
Smokers in Hertfordshire, a county in southern England, are to be breathalysed to ensure they have kicked the habit before they are referred for non-urgent surgery. From a report, shared by several readers: Smokers will be breath-tested before they are considered for non-urgent surgery, two clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have decided. Patients in Hertfordshire must stop smoking at least eight weeks before surgery or it may be delayed. Obese patients have also been told they must lose weight in order to have non-urgent surgery. The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) said the plan seemed to be "against the principles of the NHS (the publicly funded national healthcare system for England)." A joint committee of the Hertfordshire Valleys and the East and North Hertfordshire CCGs, which made the decisions, said they had to "make best use of the money and resources available." Patients with a body mass index (BMI) of over 40 must lose 15% of their weight and those with a BMI of over 30 must lose 10%, or reduce it to under a 40 BMI or a 30 BMI - whichever is the greater amount. The lifestyle changes to reduce weight must take place over nine months.
We've always had "death panels" in that we've never been able to afford to keep treating people with every last-ditch expensive possibility and always need to decide when it's better for the patient's comfort to just give up.
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I don't think this falls into slippery slope territory. Smoking and obesity aren't things that increase risks in your surgery by something small value, they increase it by large values. Acting like this is some slope that leads us to "death panels", is much like saying, "The Federal government mandates seatbelts, next thing you know they'll be installing cameras in your car and watching you every minute you're in your car." or my personal favorite, "You let your barber cut your hair, next thing you know they'll be lopping off your limbs."
It might be just me, but I think we're really reaching here thinking that this is a gateway to death panels in any country.
Now the big question is will this result in the patients improving their health before surgery or will surgery just get deferred until it's urgent?
When someone says, "Any fool can see
The baby died because its condition was untreatable, no matter what some dodgy US quack says.
When you've stopped being the place that Andrew Wakefield legged it to so he could continue spouting lies about mercury and autism and profiting off three-jab vaccines, come back to us.
It's not society's job to do it for you
Unless you have socialized medicine, then it is. At the same time, if "society" is footing the bill for your medical care, you shouldn't be surprised when "society" puts constraints on your behaviors.
Makes sense to me. Now tell us how you feel about drug tests for recipients of public assistance.
Which wouldn't bother me if we had private-funded healthcare as a viable option. But since we don't, I guess it's up to Big Brother, since the moment a third party pays, it's no longer just about me and my doctor, right?
That third-party being either the Government or private insurance - so how are they different? I private insurer can deny you coverage or payment for treatment and can have their own rules for access to care/procedures.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
We already have death panels in US healthcare.
They are called medical insurance claims processors, or adjusters.
No - you are voluntarily choosing not to use the NHS, thats your choice. The NHS will always be there to scrape you off the road after a car accident, to treat your cardiac arrest when you fall over in a shopping mall, to reset your broken leg when you fall down stairs after a boozy night out.
It will always give you treatment - just not on *your* terms alone. And thats perfectly fine.
Slippery slope does not apply when there is a clear, inevitable path from point A to point B. If I tell you that if you keep increasing the pace of your binge drinking it is going to ruin your liver, I have not made a slippery slope argument. I've told you that A must lead to B. There is not enough money to give every person every medical service that they would like. At some point, someone would have to decide who gets what. In a western culture, that decision maker would most likely be a panel ('cause that's how we roll). That panel would be deciding who lives and dies, i.e. a Death Panel.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba