But those who have to live with the NHS and its “bottlenecks’’ don’t always find them so admirable. The British press has been reporting horror stories about the realities of government-run health care. Some recent headlines give a sense of the coverage:
“Overstretched maternity units mean mothers face a 100-mile journey to have baby.’’
“Hundreds of patients died needlessly at NHS hospital due to appalling care.’’
“Cash-strapped NHS trust introduces rationing for common children’s conditions.’’
“Standard of care in some wards ‘would shame a third world country.’ ’’
“Stafford Hospital caused ‘unimaginable suffering.’ ’’
No one can deny that America’s health care system is flawed in many ways. But when it comes to the standard that matters most — the quality of health care provided — our haphazard, expensive, insurance-based system towers above the NHS.
“In Britain 36 percent of patients have to wait more than four months for non-emergency surgery,’’ wrote journalist James Bartholomew in The Spectator. “In the US, a mere five percent do.’’
By one metric after another — cancer survival rates, performance of diagnostic tests, availability of CT and MRI scanners, consultation with specialists — US health care is superior. “British state-run health care,’’ Bartholomew concluded, “is so amazingly, achingly, miserably, and mortally incompetent.’’
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/06/16/dangerous_to_our_health/
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