Britain is mad Giuliani thinks the NHS sucks

Oh wait, I see. So, every British media outlet under the (S)un can point out the NHS is awful... but the minute someone from overseas does it to counter Michael Moore's idiocy, it's off limits?

Damned Limeys.

n the radio ad, Giuliani, who has suffered prostate cancer, said the U.S. survival rate for the disease was 82 percent, but the survival rate in Britain was just 44 percent "under socialised medicine."

Britain's Health Secretary Alan Johnson said Giuliani's figures were wrong and the survival rate under Britain's National Health Service was in fact much higher.

"The British NHS should not become a political football in American presidential politics," Johnson told The Times newspaper.

"Our rate of prostate cancer survival is actually much higher than has been claimed. The latest data show a survival rate of over 70 percent and rising."

From Cancerpage.com

Bad news there Johnson, it already has. You can thank Sicko for that.

(According to The Telegraph figures for England say they're actually 52.7% for all cancers in women and 44.8% in men. Didn't see any comment from Alan Johnson in that article!)

Edit: Where the hell are Forbes getting this from?! Today, rates are higher - 99 percent in the U.S. and an estimated 74 percent in the U.K.

And if he did...
The former New York mayor got his numbers from an article in the City Journal, a quarterly magazine published by the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank.

Then why is the Telegraph using the same data?

Bad AP.

Oh NHS Direct. How could you get any better?

So, since Sunday my left leg's been aching. No idea why. I haven't injured myself recently (that I know of.)

I'm sitting here debating making an appointment with my vile GP, or going to A&E. Instead I go for the middle ground and call NHS Direct. In the past, with other people, they've been quite helpful. I call, the phone rings and an extremely long message plays (about a minute) before the gatekeeper picks up. She asks me for the number I'm calling from, my name, my symptoms, my address. I tell her everything and it isn't that much information. The trouble with the bio speech is, she's doing it in such a round-a-bout way that it takes 5 minutes to get the info she's after.

In her eyes I'm worthy to speak to someone with a degree. As a result, I get passed to a nurse, a quite heavily accented fellow with the phone manners of a hammer. He asks me the same question and at this point (6 minutes in) I'm starting to get really annoyed. What the hell was the point of the first gatekeeper if I just have to answer all the same bullshit again? And it's not really like the latter one listens to the answers I give him anyway.

Him:'Is any part of your leg numb?'
Me: 'Yes. My calves and just under my ankle'
Him: 'Like you can't feel anything,'
Me:'that is the definition of numbness, yes.'
Him: 'And it's numb.'
Me:'I did just say that.'

Him: 'Can you walk?'
Me:'Yes, but it's painful.'
Him: 'So this isn't causing you any difficulty when walking?'
Me:'I think I just said it was.'
Him:'So it isn't.'
Me:'*sigh*'

So 10 minutes of the conversational equivalent of listening to Terry Wogan's BBC2 show, tells me I need to go to A&E. Why? I have no idea. His mysterious oracle matrix thingie is forbidden knowledge to lowly patients. People don't need to know what could be wrong with them. When I asked about possibilities the little fuck gave me a long lecture about how diagnosis works and refused to suggest anything.

What the hell? I'm not a hypochondriac and not likely to write up a will at the suggestion it might be the cancer. (Everything could be cancer.) I just like to be aware if my trip to the emergency room should take place before I make the decision to commute home on a crowded train. Knowing whether my hips or knees will crumble under me like hunks of Wendsleydale is kind of important to me. As a result, you'd think it would be important to NHS Direct as well.

So, in an hour I'm off to A&E. No idea what could be causing my leg pain, only know that it's there, Wigan Infirmary charges a shitload for parking and I should probably grab a pack of smokes. Wish me luck.