How inept is the Guardian? A study of 11 countries necessarily cannot show that the UK NHS is best in the world, although I agree it has a decent claim.
Apparently it also shows the USA to be worst in the world. Perhaps because that sample of 11 did not include Malawi or North Korea, where I think health outcomes are slightly worse.

Of course I am sure we will be discussing how the NHS is going to leak healthcare details to international assassins and become an organ of the global conspiracy to convert all humanity into biofuels for the Internet of Things again tomorrow. So maybe it's the best in the world at that.

The values do seem odd to me. How can the UK be best at nearly everything and have second to worst "healthy lives (mortality amenable to medical care, infant mortality, and healthy life expectancy at age 60)"?
Full report

How did they beat Germany?
My mum had to wait 3 years for a new knee, I went to my doctor here with a Haglund heel and was in hospital 2 weeks later, they wanted to do it the following week, but I pushed for 2 weeks, because I needed to sort things out at work.

I've never seen the same doctor twice in the UK in the last 6 years. I saw some that disputed that my condition didn't really exist

I've never had a condition that exists in the hinterlands of nonexistence, so my experience is not that thorough. But the NHS seems pretty good to me.

In that report value for money (likely equated with sustainability) is probably a big factor. By that measure the NHS is great, definitely one of the best. Unfortunately, things which keep costs down, sometimes damage sustainability in ways that are harder to measure.

The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'evidence'.

I did also find the final row in the results odd however. The best explanation I can come up with is that the NHS is better than most at treating people once they get ill but compared to the other developed nations it's quite bad at stopping people getting ill in the first place which is why the last row is as it is. It would depend I think on whether, in other countries, preventative care/health education is seen as the responsibility of the health care system or of the government and how well the relevant party does the job. I personally believe the DoH in the UK is actually pretty bad at helping people stay fit beyond the obvious anti-smoking campaigns. The NHS has a role to play in that certainly but it kind of depends where the hat sits.

The UK population as a whole is less well than most of it's developed neighbours; or at least it often comes well down the table in surveys of that kind of thing. Thus it scores lower on the 'health and wellbeing' scale even if it's better at treating people once they do get sick.

Jon

+1 - I think the NHS is very good at helping people survive. It's not great at helping people attain a good quality of life if they fall ill though but it does provide a bare minimum of care to all which is very important if you have no choice.

As I said before, in France you have to pay and get what you paid refunded by the PCT/ private healthcare.
another anecdote: My brother is hundreds of euros out of pockets every month for treatment to his chronic lung condition. If my parents didn't help he would have to go without treatment altogether.

The health insurance companies are very much into prevention. Mine, 'Techniker Krankenkasse' has even opened regional consultation centres for back complaints, with pain therapists, physio etc. To help treat patients before the symptoms become so acute that they have to be signed off sick.

Likewise they have bonus programmes for young people to get them into the habit of getting regular dental check-ups or going to health clubs etc. If they go to a sponsored fitness programme, they receive bonus points and if they build up enough points in a year, they get a cash-back bonus at the end of the year.