Maggots??!! Yuck, I say no thank you. Oh, wait, whoops - none of those examples are from NHS, or any government-run healthcare program. They're from private medical providers in the US.

It should be noted, though, that while it's not good to just have maggots laying around loose in operating rooms (although there appears to be no evidence of actual harm in the NHS case you cited), the use of maggots for surgical and therapeutic purposes has been on the rise.

While anecdotes don't make data, here's betting I could maintain a 3-to-1 ratio on the horror stories without too much trouble.

You obviously have more free time than I do in order to check on these things. This will serve you well when the time comes for you to choose a nursing home (since two of the three examples you cite are, indeed, nursing homes--and I'm not clear that the second and third aren't making reference to the same incident). I also note that in the first instance the patient successfully sued the hospital, and it's not clear to me that this means of redress would be possible under a government-run system. In any event, we in the United States remain free to choose those facilities that require care, which is more than can be said for the citizenry of Aberdeen.

Whoops, I meant to say in the last paragraph, "those facilities that provide care."

Doing the whole "you obviously have more free time than I do" routine is a pretty lame way to say that your snarky point was neutralized. Yes, cue the Lee Greenwood song, we Americans remain free to choose facilities that require care (in this case, some good pest control) or provide health care. Those flush with cash can have insect-free facilities, those without dough can deal with the maggots, I guess (in a manner not dealt with as it has been in Aberdeen). And the two stories are distinct. Volusia County and Palm Beach Co. are five counties apart. One patient had maggots in his eye, another on the leg.

Doing the whole "you obviously have more free time than I do" routine is a pretty lame way to say that your snarky point was neutralized.

Yes, you're right. It was lame, although it reflects the fact that I really do have very little time for posting this week. But since two of your three examples occurred in nursing homes rather than hospitals, and (as you admit) having consumer choice makes a difference, I don't see how my point was neutralized.

Your point, that maggots are symptomatic of socialized medicine (such as the UK's NHS), was neutralized when I cited three examples of maggots actually having an adverse effect on people (which is itself in contrast to the Scotland example, where nobody seems to have been directly effected at all) in privately run healthcare facilities, one of which was a hospital. One isn't necessarily safe from the possibility of an actual maggot infestation - of one's body - in a private U.S. facility. I wouldn't guess that you'd strictly limit your disdain for socialized medicine just to hospitals, thus my nursing home examples. The elderly count too, right?

In any case, the Scotland case you cited seems to have been resolved:

"A maggot outbreak at a top kids’ hospital was caused by a dead bird, pest controllers revealed yesterday.

The chick had entered a ceiling vent at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital — where it died.

The carcass attracted maggots which then fell into operating theatres...

The pipes will be sealed with wire mesh to stop more getting in."

The hospital opened in 2004, and this looks to be a freakish anomaly with no human harm done, not exactly some damning scandal.

Sure, conservatives and (some) libertarians should push the "consumer choice" line, though. Hospitals like Hiltons for the rich, maggots for the others.

Nursing homes and hospitals are apples and oranges. The former are a dime a dozen; Ashland alone has no fewer than six of them. It shouldn't be surprising that some of them are quite sketchy, indeed. And let's be honest--people go to hospitals with the expectation that they will get well; they go to nursing homes expecting to die there.

Hospitals like Hiltons for the rich, maggots for the others.

Given that some 80 percent of Americans report satisfaction with their own medical care, there must be a lot of rich people around.

Here is something to consider in the cost of 'healthcare' debate. Why don't Americans stop being spoiled yuppies and make arrangements to take care of the elders. If grandpa slips and dies when everyone's at work at 77 is that really any worse than dying at 79 in a home with staph infections, bed sores and dishelved appearence looking like some 1970's zombie flick. In my experience with elder relatives even the rich homes left me with digust. I guess to each his own, but I always heard the "I don't want to be a bother thing," which is now accepted and its troubling to me. I figure I'll be executed for though crime well before senility so I'm not too concerned about this for myself, although with our rigorous vaccines and GMO foods I have heard alzimers is now being found in 20 somethings.

this planet is full of maggots not enough spiders