As 2018 Ends, the British NHS Is a Mixed Bag

A NHS (National Health Service) sign is pictured outside St Thomas' Hospital, near the Houses of Parliament, in central London on March 8, 2017. Britain's economy will grow by 2.0 percent this year, sharply up on a previous forecast of 1.4 percent, finance minister Philip Hammond said Wednesday in his budget statement. Hammond also announced a two billion pound increase in spending for social care, over the next three years, in an effort to tackle pressure on the NHS. BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

Commentary

Some nine years ago, I wrote a report in The Daily Telegraph describing the saga of a London neighbor whose life was saved by the British National Health Service, best known as the “NHS.” She was 76 at the time and, after becoming violently ill, had collapsed while on an overnight stay at a friend’s home. I will not deny that the socialized medical system of the United Kingdom worked tirelessly to bring her back from the brink of death.