Midlife
Retro Wizard
The answer to your question is a broad "yes" if you look at other health care systems. Basically free treatment at the point of delivery and not a crippling burden on the individual. Having worked in Minnesota and North Carolina the NHS seems a dream come true for poor and middle class Americans.
Ask individuals here in the UK and you will get a range of answers.
I worked in the NHS in the 80's and left to become a clinical academic and returned to the NHS as a Consultant 20 or so years later.
The biggest changes are the loss of the "paternalistic" NHS, I used to admit people into hospital to give them a good nights sleep, be looked after and a few square meals. Griffiths killed all that along with the introduction of nurses who feel it is beneath them to do small tasks to care for people.
Don't get me wrong, the technology has improved and the outcomes are better for most diseases but something had to give, add that to peoples inflated expectation for what they can get for "free" and there is dissatisfaction.
People get pissed on a weekend, fall on their faces and expect the taxpayer to stump up twenty grand to put it all back together with state of the art treatment...................
All IMHO
Shaun
Ask individuals here in the UK and you will get a range of answers.
I worked in the NHS in the 80's and left to become a clinical academic and returned to the NHS as a Consultant 20 or so years later.
The biggest changes are the loss of the "paternalistic" NHS, I used to admit people into hospital to give them a good nights sleep, be looked after and a few square meals. Griffiths killed all that along with the introduction of nurses who feel it is beneath them to do small tasks to care for people.
Don't get me wrong, the technology has improved and the outcomes are better for most diseases but something had to give, add that to peoples inflated expectation for what they can get for "free" and there is dissatisfaction.
People get pissed on a weekend, fall on their faces and expect the taxpayer to stump up twenty grand to put it all back together with state of the art treatment...................
All IMHO
Shaun