Across the pond in the United Kingdom, court proceedings are providing a sharp spotlight on the harms associated with government-run health care. While the immediate trial involves a single nurse, in a larger sense, the entire system of socialized medicine stands in the dock.
Lucy Letby, who worked for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) in a neonatal intensive care unit, is being retried for the attempted murder of one of her patients. Last year, a jury convicted Letby of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others, while acquitting her of two murders and deadlocking on the murder of four babies.
We may never know the specific circumstances behind each of the tragic deaths Letby is associated with. But regardless of whether she was to blame for some, or none, of the children who passed, it’s very clear what is to blame for all of them: Britain’s National Health Service.
Scenario 1: Bureaucracy Enabled a Murderer
Statements made before the most recent trial reveal an NHS culture seemingly more focused on protecting its reputation than ensuring that patients were protected from a potential criminal on their staff.
For instance, when hospital staff raised concerns about the nurse being at the center of several patient deaths, “Letby responded by filing a bullying complaint against the doctors in late 2016. The hospital apologized to her and pressured two doctors to write an apology to Letby in early 2017.”
One of the doctors forced to apologize to Letby testified at the recent
