I do feel that the NHS is a wonderful thing and I am most grateful for their emergency treatment and A&E services which I have used countless times in the past few years for a plethora of reasons. However, I am not content with the general service which it offers and so pay for private healthcare too which I have used in order to save up to six months of waiting time on various treatments and procedures. What I thought was absolutely ridiculous was that some of the various equipment which I've been involved with in the private sector is owned by the NHS. So the private sector are essentially leasing taxpayer's property... The NHS, as Colin says, has been backlogged by paperwork, political correctness and poaching of staff for the private sector. I have had one major bad experience with the NHS which a lawyer friend of mine has told me that I could have sued them for a considerable sum. However, what is the point of suing the NHS when they are in so much debt as it is and I am, dare I say it, grateful for what it has provided so far? I just think that it needs a complete overhaul to ensure that its standards rise rather than deteriorate. I do think that this Swine Flu business will show the NHS's true colours in terms of organisation and cooperation, so far they've done quite well as far as the media portrayal shows. So, all in all, I do like the British plan but it is in such a state that it requires a lot of TLC.