Health
Amid growing UK health care crisis, nearly 8 million patients are waiting for care, data shows
Experts are warning of a growing health care crisis in England, as millions of U.K. residents are waiting for medical attention.
As of July 2024, 7.62 million patients were on the waiting list for care, with 6.39 million in need of specific medical treatment, according to the latest Referral to Treatment (RTT) data from the National Health Service (NHS), England’s publicly funded health care system.
The average wait time for treatment is 14 weeks, but more than three million patients have been waiting for over 18 weeks — and it’s been more than a year for nearly 300,000 of them.
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Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, appeared on “Fox & Friends” to share his concerns about the situation.
“This is a huge warning for us,” he said.
As of July 2024, 7.62 million U.K. patients were on the waiting list for care, with 6.39 million in need of specific medical treatment. (iStock)
“The National Health Service, which started in 1948 with the great idea to take care of everyone in England, is broken,” he went on.
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“We’re talking about nearly eight million people there who are waiting for health care … many more than 18 weeks. How could you wait 18 weeks if you’re having a heart problem or you have an infection?”
Although the problem is not as extreme in the U.S., Siegel warned that it can be a struggle to get timely care stateside.
“Even here … 26% of the people in the U.S. are waiting more than two months for their health care already,” he told Fox News.
“Even people who are getting it from their employers are waiting.”
As far as what is causing the delay in care, Siegel said, “The first problem is that Kamala Harris and others are talking about coverage all the time — but coverage doesn’t mean care.”
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“You’ve got your coverage, you’ve got your insurance, maybe you’ve got public insurance — almost 50% of the U.S. already has Medicare or Medicaid — but do you have a doctor? Do you have access to the care you need? That’s the question, and that’s [being] obscured.”
“The National Health Service, which started in 1948 with the great idea to take care of everyone in England, is broken,” said Dr. Marc Siegel. (Fox News)
Siegel added, “We’re heading toward a time of personalized solutions, which are very exciting, but they’re expensive.”
The doctor also discussed the potential problem of illegal immigrants using medical services, which could delay American citizens from seeing their doctors.
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“Illegal migrants homeless on the streets, with illnesses that are spreading, flooding the emergency rooms — that’s going to be a greater and greater problem, whether you give them health insurance or not,” Siegel said.
“But if you give them health insurance, that breaks the bank.”
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Health
Federal judge orders EPA further regulate fluoride in drinking water due to concerns over lowered IQ in kids
It has been added to municipal water for decades, but a federal judge in California has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate fluoride because high levels could pose “an unreasonable risk” to the intellectual development of children.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled Tuesday that the scientific evidence of fluoride’s health risks when ingested at current prescribed levels requires stricter regulation under the 2016 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The act provides a legal pathway for citizens to petition the EPA to consider whether an industrial chemical presents health risks.
Chen, in his 80-page ruling, wrote there is “little dispute” over whether fluoride is hazardous and ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.
“Indeed, EPA’s own expert agrees that fluoride is hazardous at some level of exposure,” the judge said. “And ample evidence establishes that a mother’s exposure to fluoride during pregnancy is associated with IQ decrements in her offspring.”
FLUORIDE IN WATER LINKED TO LOWER INTELLIGENCE
A drop of water drips from a leaky faucet. (iStock)
“Between 1981 and 1984, fluoride’s association with adverse effects including osteosclerosis, enamel fluorosis, and psychological and behavioral problems was contested,” Chen said.
At the same time, he wrote that the court’s finding “does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health,” Chen said. “Rather, as required by the Amended TSCA, the Court finds there is an unreasonable risk of such injury, a risk sufficient to require the EPA to engage with a regulatory response.
“This order does not dictate precisely what that response must be. Amended TSCA leaves that decision in the first instance to the EPA. One thing the EPA cannot do, however, in the face of this Court’s finding, is to ignore that risk,” Chen added.
“If the Court finds anew that the chemical at issue presents an unreasonable risk, it then orders the EPA to engage in rulemaking regarding the chemical,” the judge said. “The EPA is afforded in the first instance the authority to respond; regulatory actions can range from requiring a mere warning label to banning the chemical.”
An EPA spokesperson, Jeff Landis, told The Associated Press that the agency was reviewing the decision but offered no further comment.
Justine Carter (left) experienced a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) while on the treadmill. At right, she reunites with the EMS team who saved her life at HCA Healthcare’s Mountain View Hospital. (Justine Carter)
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