Sunday's "New York Times" (April 18) provided more bleak facts about socialized medicine in Great Britain:

The majority Labor Party touts that the system's waiting list to receive so-called "non-emergency" medical treatment in Great Britain fell by 189,310 to 1.12 million between April 1998 to February 1999.

However, if a 1.12 million person waiting list isn't bad enough, the waiting list to get on the waiting list has increased from 247,500 in March 1997 to 468,000 at the end of 1998.

"The wait for appointments with neurologists, orthopedic surgeons and opthalmologists can stretch to well past a year, thus delaying a patient's diagnosis and ultimate treatment."

Many doctors are concerned that the government's targets for reducing waiting lists are leading to "tricks," including "giving priority to minor operations that can be more easily disposed of, while making more serious cases wait; canceling treatment or transferring patients to different specialists so that they have to start their wait all over again, but are statistically treated as if they have just begun waiting, and spending huge amounts of money to have waiting-list patients treated in private hospitals."

One patient featured in the article-a self-employed heating contractor-faces a wait of two-and-one-half years to get a needed back operation.

These ugly facts about socialized medicine should be heeded in the U.S. because this is exactly where advocates of big-government health care-a.k.a. "Patient Bill of Rights"-want to take us.