Go to any large city hospital in the USA such as Grady in Atlanta, LA Womens in CA, Cook County in Chicago or anywhere and the same scenario will repeat at least a few times a month. At least she had prenatal care! The neonatal and maternal mortality rate in the USA is abysmal compared with the UK.

Linda, Portland OR, USA

Disgusting health care!! They should be Sued!!

When a major Teaching Hospital treats its patients like this, then heads need to roll!! WHY for a start was this hospital so poorly staffed that Midwives could not give adequate Care?

An apology is NOT good enough. Mother and baby were put at risk!

Maureen P, Redding , USA

Thank you for one of the best arguments against socialized medicine I have seen. I certainly hope our president-elect reads this and chooses not to rush into a program that would multiply this scenario. We have over 30 million illegal immigrants and more arriving every day.

S.H. Logsdon, Anna, TX, USA

I believe that money pumped into the NHS goes towards administration who need more administrators to administer themselves. Anything left over goes towards a computer system that does not work yet (and may never work anyway) and needs more administrators to run = less pratical staffnurses & Doctors

P Barrett, Plymouth,

The immigrants are the ones pushing up the birth rate and crowding out the baby units.

RB, Aberdeen,

This was this woman's third child why was she 'panicking'?
I agree this is not a good thing to happen but people give birth in worst conditions every day all over the world. She was lucky
she was actually indoors. Also giving birth standing up makes
for an easier birth as gravity works with you.

Catherine Sarginson, Victoria, Canada

Whenever you allow government to run something you can be certain it will run it into the ground. Government run entities are ALWAYS reduced to 3rd world quality. Good luck with the NHS.

Ty, Raleigh, USA

I can't wait for the United States to institute this type of health care system.

PJG, Texas, USA

There are more people here in the US. It will be worse... much worse and more expensive too. We can only hope some one will step in and stop Obama before it's too late.

Shannon, Weatherly, USA

Why are people in the US clamoring for national healthcare, when we can look across the ocean and see exactly what it looks like? Oh, but we could have hospitals run with the same efficiency and care as the local DMV, Yay!!

Hayley, Virginia, USA

What a lot of foolish rot coming from the other side of the pond. Of course if you can afford it private medicine (of a good well regulated standard) will be better than that provided by the state which can only be of an adequate sytandard due to cost constraints. But if you cant afford it ?

Mike, Braintree, UK

For the people in the US . Are you forgetting about the woman who died in an emergency room floor while nurses walked past her and the janitor mopped around her after? Only after sitting and crying out in pain for hours? Both systems have their good points and bad points. The US is not flawless

Tracy, Springfield, Illinois, USA

I imagine that socialized med. has some perks, but this type of thing is far too common. I have friends that live in countries with s.m., and even for something pressing, one has to wait for treatment as some specialized meds have set times for accepting new patients.

MJ Straka, W. Salem, USA

It's funny how a story like this in another country brings out all the right-wing U.S. nut cases. Plenty of stories like this - and worse - are reported in the U.S. While these things should not happen anyplace, where is outrage at the PRIVATE U.S. healthcare system when these things happen here?

Brian, New Jersey, USA

Why wasn't she brought into the triage room and why didn't they
assess how dilated she was? ('course that's hard to check when you're standing up!) That hospital would be sued here. Esp if the cord was around the neck! You get what you pay for--or not...!
(Hospital floors are NOT clean! Ever!)

whitney , Cocoa, Fl

'..the medical care you asked for
when you elected all the socialist to control your country'
Ah yes, land of the free where all men are equal, well those who can pay for it anyway. This article is not about socialism, it's about efficiency and patient dignity.

Jo, London, UK

One of our Republican candidates during the debates made this profound statement: If you think healthcare is expensive now, just wait until it's "free". This so-called "freebie" that the democrats in our country are pushing will cost us more AND the quality of heathcare will go downhill.

Deb, Houston, USA

To everyone in the UK. You got the medical care you asked for
when you elected all the socialist to control your country. I am
lucky since I live in the US but time is running our here with the election of Obama. Will will have the same mess in four year or less.

Lowell, Lenexa, USA

.....and Obama, Hillary and the rest of the Democrat Party want to bring socialized medicine to the USA. No thanks!

Jim Mowrey, South Windsor, CT, USA

This does not speak well of socialized medicine...

Rozita, Clifton Park, NY, USA

That is what happens with Government run Health Care. Even though citizens pay high taxes for this service, those involved act like it is free and that the individual has to take what they get. Soon this so called free health care will be here in the United States too.

Ed Kuck, Pemberton, US

Clearly pumping so much money in to NHS "lovely" system does not help. I am from Latvia, and I cannot imagine such situation in any of the hospitals in such case. The health system in Uk is a total disaster and what a shame, because it represents itself as a wealthy country.

Liene, Edinburgh,

I was surprised and very pleased to see Sir Richard Branson has been made Chairman of the Patients Association and perhaps he can put some pressure on the NHS and Govt to sort them out in many respects. Yet another service the Labour Government has messed up.

Mike, london, uk

Terminate the managers employment immediately with minimum notice time as they are now proven dangerous to public health!

I cannot but strongly agree with Mr Branson!
Incompetent managers should be fired!

I hope the hospital was a reasonably clean one for once as she gave birth on the floor.

D Andersson, Hull,

One hundred & eleven billion pounds of spending per year and this is what we get. Its amazing what a well funded health system can do.

That's £1850 of spending for every person in the country or £7400 for each family of four.

Graham, St. Albans, uk