Out of Control

You get these kind of unitended consequences when you have a centralized system, even from policies with good intentions and mostly good results.

More than 43,000 patients had to wait outside in ambulances for at least an hour last year before they could be seen in Britain's National Health Service emergency rooms. Standards require that patients must been seen within four hours when they arrive at an emergency room, so when busy, patients must wait outside so the clock doesn't start ticking. A Department of Health spokesman shrugged off the report. "These figures must be seen in the ontext of the 4.3 million patient journeys undertaken by emergency vehicles," he said.

Whole story here. Synopsis and hat tip thanks to This is True.