A nonprofit organization or not-for-profit organization is an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals rather than distributing them as profit or dividends.
err, no. Perhaps I misread your interest in Nurses, their backbone never gained my attention. Have a good day.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/14/nhs-nurses-stretch-breaking-point-report Half of nurses are working through breaks or beyond their shift, revealing a health service under severe strain, a report has warned. A survey of almost 3,000 nurses by Unison showed that two-thirds believed they did not spend enough time with patients, which most said affected care. Three out of five of those questioned felt that staff numbers led to lower standards of care, while almost half said they were looking after eight or more patients. The report, Running on Empty, said half of nurses were not confident about raising any concerns they had with their local managers Gail Adams, Unison's head of nursing, said: "One of the most damaging findings of this survey is how little has changed since last year. "Despite all the government rhetoric, despite the Francis, Keogh and Cavendish reports, the spectre of another Mid Staffs still looms large over the NHS. Progress on safe staffing levels has been glacial and that means poorer care and patients still at risk. "It's clear that despite nurses working through breaks and beyond their hours, they simply do not have enough time to give patients the care and attention they need. That is distressing for patients and for the staff trying to care for them. "The government needs to face up to the damage it is inflicting on patients and staff, by not introducing legally enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios, and take urgent action." The union claimed that the survey also revealed an overuse of agency staff in the NHS. In another study last week, Unison said the ambulance service was on the verge of breaking down because of stress levels among staff.
I've read a number of such articles (tales of the imminent and certain collapse of the NHS extend back to at least the 1990's), and talked with many, many people here about the follies of the English health care system. They all seem condemning, until they give me this look and then say, effectively, "Well, it's not that bad. It's not like we're America." Seriously. I've never met a one who would trade their system for the American one. They all seem torn between trying to figure out if it's a travesty or a bad joke. And going off first-hand experience of seeing the gross inefficiencies of the US system vs the streamlined systems of the UK, I can't blame them.
My son sliced his index finger nearly all the way off yesterday and went to the emergency room in Salem. He had to wait 6 hours before he saw anyone. After the wait his care was excellent.
I grew up in the rural Southwest of England (the nearest village was the quaintly named Langford Budville - it was a couple of miles away across fields). Once, when I had the flu bad, the doctor came out to our cottage. To do this he had to drive for half an hour, the last part of which was up an incredibly pitted unpaved road. Free! Those were the days. Ironically, I later went to a Private (which in England is, confusingly, called "Public") School (also free - I got a scholarship) and was the only lefty there. (Why did my parents send me there? According to my Dad, because he was convinced that the newly-elected Tories would dismantle the state education system. So I got to learn Latin. Which I have since forgotten.) I was regularly told to "fuck off to Russia". But not one of the charmers who used to say that would have ever questioned the NHS. Even Maggie didn't dare fuck with it, so she settled on using North Sea Oil money to cripple the Miners.
The reason we have crooked and stained teeth is because necessary dental care is free. (My two front teeth are fake because I broke them in two separate incidents as a kid. Ironically, they're the whitest teeth I have. Both free.) If you want cosmetic care, it costs money. So anyone could get it, and some do. But then some people get their anuses bleached as well. And besides, we don't smile, so it's not necessary.
The NHS is the third largest employer in the world after the Chinese Army and the Indian National Railway. China has approximately 1.3B people, India has approximately 1.0B and the UK has a little over 40MM people. We have 315MM. How big and bureaucratic will our system be? Also, the UK outsources most of its defense to us so it can pay for a system where its breast cancer survival rate is 74%, when it's over 90% in the US. To whom will we outsource our defense to protect us from an expansionist Russia and China?
You seem to be comfortable with others deciding what is necessary. Remember, a government that can do everything for you can do anything to you.
From their budget for operations and maintenance, just like WalMart does. Did you skip Business 101 in Jr High, or are you just being obtuse?
The UK population is actually about 50% bigger than you think. 63 million. UK spends about 2.3% of gdp on military. US spends 3.8%. UK spends about 9.6% of gdp on health care. US spends 18%. It's hard to see how the US military spending subsidizes UK health care spending from those numbers. Seems to me that the UK just spends less on both, and a lot less on health care. It's fun to pick out individual illnesses and point to that as proof of systemic problems, but something like "breast cancer survival rates" are not necessarily apples-to-apples comparisons across countries. If you have a link to the actual study, it'd be interesting to read. Anyway, the point of this thread is that my entire life I've heard from conservatives, "You have no idea how good we have it! You think this is bad, you should just see how much it sucks over there!" (Many of these people, incidentally, didn't own a passport.) Since statistics don't seem to budge the conversation, I thought I'd post my personal experience of what I've personally seen in the past few months. It's just one guy's anecdotal evidence, but based on what I've heard my whole life growing up in Idaho, one would expect a different experience.
You're forgetting the US Defense Dept, largest employer in the world by far. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_employers Also, environment, heredity, attitude and lifestyle are all factors in survival rates of breast cancer as well as in general health.
The US GDP is almost $17T The UK GDP is less than $3T You can talk percentages all you wish but as long as the UK's GDP is roughly 17% of the US', then you can't compare the UK's defense numbers and ours. Clearly we spend more on health care. We also receive a superior product.
