British Court: Patient Can Be Denied Life-Sustaining Treatment Against Her Will • Hacker News Board

Re: British Court: Patient Can Be Denied Life-Sustaining Treatment Against Her Will

#21

Post by free_glamorgan » Mon, Sep 04, 2023, 10:41 PM UTC

kmlx wrote: post #12

master_crab wrote: post #7

It’s not clear if she is being supported by NHS or fully private insurance. The UK does exercise triage on long term cases. The flip side is no country can afford to maintain every patient with a terminal condition indefinitely and doctors are allowed to exercise judgement.

it’s the NHS: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66673511 of course they implement triage. but if the person has enough money they can go private.

I've never heard "traige" used with such negative connotations! FWIW, the term used by the NHS is "QALYS", or "Quality-adjusted life year". Yes, these calculations are made at all levels of health care.

Re: British Court: Patient Can Be Denied Life-Sustaining Treatment Against Her Will

#22

Post by darkclouds » Tue, Sep 05, 2023, 3:09 AM UTC

SenAnder wrote: post #3

> Her deeply religious family have spent their entire life savings on her care and has complained that a “transparency order” requested by the hospital barred their ability to give details on the case to help raise public funds. This is the most vile part of the British legal system - how it casually gags those involved from talking about it. Edit: Otherwise, I would highlight master_crab's comment [1] - it's not 100…

This link provides a tiny bit more info about her possible treatment as a "experimental nucleoside treatment", so this is going to involve zinc.

Another question I have not see asked is why isnt a kidney transplant an option?

This might be linked to the condition, but not knowing what is up with her makes it difficult to comment, plus the courts et al have already "anonymised" her as ST, so I dont see why the condition should be hidden unless this is a courts way of accepting there actually isnt any anonymity.

Either way without knowing her condition, how can the public even know if she is getting the right treatment from the NHS. A mitochondria disease is like saying a respiratory condition.

Re: British Court: Patient Can Be Denied Life-Sustaining Treatment Against Her Will

#23

Post by db48x » Tue, Sep 05, 2023, 3:52 AM UTC

kmlx wrote: post #11

Detrytus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's the downside of publicly funded healthcare: government pays for your treatment, so government gets to decide if you are worth the expense. Which of course is completely fucked up.

that person can still go private. no one will deny her that right. but state funded healthcare makes sure even the poorest get some form of care. and yes, they will triage.

How can she? The judge just declared her incompetent to make her own medical decisions.

Re: British Court: Patient Can Be Denied Life-Sustaining Treatment Against Her Will

#24

Post by kmlx » Tue, Sep 05, 2023, 8:37 AM UTC

db48x wrote: post #23

kmlx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that person can still go private. no one will deny her that right. but state funded healthcare makes sure even the poorest get some form of care. and yes, they will triage.

How can she? The judge just declared her incompetent to make her own medical decisions.

the trial was about the NHS. they are free to use a different provider.