Welcome to Socialized Medicine: UK Edition

Another wonderful story out of the UK. Americans! Are you listening?

Pregnant women are being denied epidurals due to staff shortages in the public health system.

"Women planning to give birth at the hospital, which delivers 1,600 babies a year, are told no epidurals are available because of a lack of senior anaesthetists. They are needed because the procedure involves injecting a drug directly into the spine."

"The failure flouts guidance from four Royal Colleges, including the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians, that women should have access to an epidural within 30 minutes of requesting one. It adds to mounting concern about the quality of NHS maternity care, with midwives in some hospitals expected to attend to three women in labour at the same time due to staff shortages."

If anyone had denied me an epidural during childbirth, they would have had to live the rest of their sorry life minus an organ.

A British wackademic and professor of midwifery or something is saying that it's cool, it's good for women to be in agonizing pain during childbirth.