More sad news from healthcare..

There have been so many discussions about healthcare in the United States in the online Lean community, that I start automatically paying more and more attention on what is happening in my countries (by that I mean The Netherlands where I am staying at the moment and Russia, which will always be home destination)

Looking through my news feed today I spotted this story

Pensioner dies after wrong injection

One of the elderly residents at a nursing home in Laren who were given insulin instead of a swine flu vaccination has died, Nos news reported on Tuesday.

It is not known if the 89-year-old woman died as a direct result of the mistake and the public prosecution department is investigating.

Eleven residents were given the wrong injection and the 10 survivors are all now out of hospital.

This is getting even more ironical in view that I just finished reading Steven J. Spear's "Chasing the Rabbit" book, which has a similar story in one of its first chapters (surprisingly enough, even the killing medicine is the same - insulin)... I just wish somebody gave this book to the people working in Laren nursing home.

What does the note about other 10 residents mean? Is that good that error was noticed and lives were saved? Not actually, that is unbelievably irresponsible and inefficient that no actions were taken after the first accident. No, really, they ignored 10 incidents of patients mistreatment! And I still wonder if anybody will take any actions after this death.

It's always disappointing to read news like this about highly-developed countries (Netherlands, UK, USA) which are in possession of the best technologies, minds and professionals. Stories like this one make me horrified about the level of healthcare in my country - Russia. It's one of my greatest nightmares that my family members or I need to attend one of Russian local hospitals.

But I still believe, that the whole Medical System can and will do better!