"I replied, 'I am British, and proud of it,'" Professor Hawking said. "Only last summer, I caught pneumonia, and would have died, but for the NHS hospital care. We must retain this critical public service, and prevent the establishment of a two-tier system, with the best medicine for the wealthy, and an inferior service for the rest." 
WELCOME to the National Health Service. The only problem is that it isn't national - results vary wildly across the country. It isn't healthy - some people are left untreated, others are treated appallingly. And its service culture sometimes seems rotten to the core. Other than that everything's just rosy. -Stephen Pollard
For cancer, American patients, both men and women, have superior survival rates for all major types. For some specifics, per Verdecchia in Lancet Oncology, the breast cancer mortality rate is 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom than in the U.S.; prostate cancer mortality rates are strikingly worse in the UK than in the U.S.; mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher than in the U.S.
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Financial, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
Obese people will be routinely refused operations across the NHS, health service bosses have warned, after one authority said it would limit procedures on an unprecedented scale.
Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole.
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Financial, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare, Stereotyping
Obese people will be routinely refused operations across the NHS, health service bosses have warned, after one authority said it would limit procedures on an unprecedented scale. Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole. The restrictions will apply to standard hip and knee operations.
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
In a country that prides itself on free healthcare, DIY dentistry is an almost Victorian notion of hardship. But poverty and inequality – and the increasing stigma attached to both – are blocking access to healthcare for the poorest people in the UK, and grim tales of a black economy are on the rise. “DIY dentistry is fairly common round here,” said Emma Richardson at the Star Project in Paisley, Renfrewshire.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
A Welsh nurse has been forced to wait for potentially life-saving treatment after local health bosses refused to fund her care in England. Beth Prout, from Pembroke, West Wales, has been diagnosed with a rare form of stomach cancer. There are two hospitals in the UK able to provide the treatment the 57-year-old needs. But NHS chiefs in Wales have refused to cover the cost of sending her to England for therapy... 'I've worked all my life and paid taxes to central government. Because I live in Wales I've been treated as a second-class citizen.
Naturally, Kate Middleton opted out of Britain’s “world class” National Health Service for the delivery of her baby. According to the Daily Express, a suite at the private Lindo Wing of London’s St. Mary’s hospital costs £6,265 per night — and this “excludes consultants’ fees.” Middleton’s total bill is expected to come to around £12,000 ($18,500).
Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
Seriously ill patients are being put at risk on NHS wards because not enough consultant doctors are working at nights or weekends, according to a report on how to achieve better seven-day-a-week care.
Socialism, Healthcare
Jennifer Lane suffers from extreme and uncontrollable shaking - but she has been told she cannot have an operation that could help her.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
An increasingly serious shortage of GPs means that, on average, doctors in poorer and more-hard pressed parts of the South East see 2,000 patients each. In the inner cities, it is not unknown for a single doctor to accommodate 6,000 patients.
Hypocrisy, Oops, Greed, Socialism, Healthcare, Corruption
Only rarely will a doctor overtly say they want a patient to be seen faster because he is a paying customer, but that is the direction I am being nudged in. And sometimes, because it is the path of least resistance, the nudging works and a private patient is seen quicker than would been the case had we been left to our own devices.
Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
Inequalities in premature mortality between areas of Britain continued to rise steadily during the first decade of the 21st century. The last time in the long economic record that inequalities were almost as high was in the lead up to the economic crash of 1929 and the economic depression of the 1930s. The economic crash of 2008 might precede even greater inequalities in mortality between areas in Britain.