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Comment by arseraptor | Hacker News Reader

Funny how your anecdotal point is just that, anecdotal. Here's another anecdotal point for you -- Pancreatic cancer (stage 2). Diagnosed on the first visit even though a private doctor had missed it previously. Surgery in less than 5 days, excellent follow-up and post-surgery care including the surgeon having a set of non-mandatory procedures approved in record time (10mins) as a preventative step towards recurrence. Two years later, cancer free with excellent reminders and follow-ups on periodic checkups.

Your experience does not dictate the system, as doesn't mine.

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And another point in favor of the NHS all my letters arrive very quickly plus a reminder via phone for apointments.

So instead look at the statistics. In many sectors they are dire.

UK residents have the 20th highest life expectancy in the world. 21st for health-adjusted life expectancy. The Japanese take the top spot and live +2 years. The average American lives -2 years.

There's a lot more to health than the health care system, and this doesn't say much about how painful the process can be, but the stats look pretty good for the UK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe...

But how much of life expectancy can be attributed to the healthcare system? Maybe Brits spend more time outside, and are less stressed, etc etc. how have the rankings changed over time and what changes in the healthcare systems correlate to those trends?

I didn't claim otherwise - is there a need for that tone? What have private GPs got to do with it?

I don't doubt that the NHS would treat me reasonably quickly and probably quite well if I had stage 2 cancer. People in the UK have been trained to herald such as a result as heroics from the NHS, as if the alternative was third-world level service. I do expect - based on a lifetime of anecdotal data from myself, friends and family - that the whole process would reveal repeated mistakes, bureaucracy and time and money wasted. False dichotomy often prevails in NHS discussions.

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