Health: Our NHS is Best in the World

With a constant newsfeed of never-ending NHS problems, most Brits won’t believe the results of just-released US research into some of the most respected health systems in the world: the UK’s NHS has come top for the second time in a row.

A Safe and Fair System

The research was conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that hopes to promote a high performing healthcare system in the US (good luck with that one, fellas). The foundation took a break from battling Donald Trump to compare the US system with 10 other countries’ healthcare systems and found the NHS was overall best.

The study looked at five healthcare measurements. The NHS came top in care process and equity. Care process is based on prevention, safe care, coordination and patient engagement. According to the Commonwealth Fund, “the U.K. excels in safety” and “consistently perform[s] above the 11-country average across all sub-domains”.

Concerning equity, the research found the UK had a “relatively small difference[s] between lower- and higher-income adults on the 11 measures related to timeliness, financial barriers to care, and patient-centred care.” It’s wonderful to finally read something reassuring and glowing about our suffering system.

Awesome Accessibility and Admin

Another two categories measured were access and administrative efficiency. We came third for both, being beaten by Germany and the Netherlands for access and Australia and New Zealand for admin. The remaining countries included in the research were France, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Interestingly, the UK had one of the lowest percentages for healthcare spending as a proportion of the overall economy, as measured by GDP. Only New Zealand, Norway and Australia spend less of their annual budget on national healthcare.

Just one problem

It’s not all brilliance among the bandages. though. The UK came first overall but was 10th in a list of eleven for healthcare outcomes, beating only the US. “What are healthcare outcomes” you ask? They include things like the overall health of the population, the number of early deaths and cancer survival rates. So yes, we have the top healthcare system but our people might not actually survive to enjoy that system.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, welcomed the research as a chance to celebrate the heath system instead of constantly defending the Government’s austerity measures such as the 1% cap on wage rises for nurses and other public sector workers.

“These outstanding results are a testament to the dedication of NHS staff, who despite pressure on the front line are delivering safer, more compassionate care than ever,” he said before acknowledging the special social status of the NHS, which in 2012 became the only health system in the world to be given its own tribute in an Olympic Games opening ceremony.

‎”Ranked the best healthcare system of 11 wealthy countries, the NHS has again showed why it is the single thing that makes us most proud to be British,” Hunt said.

Kate Andrews, of the Right-wing think tank Institute of Economic Affairs, was less laudatory, insisting that the disappointing result on health outcomes meant the NHS was “far from being the envy of the world”.

“The UK has one of the highest rates of avoidable deaths in western Europe, and tens of thousands of lives could be saved each year if NHS patients with serious conditions such as cancer were treated by social health insurance systems in neighbouring countries, such as Belgium and Germany,” she said.

Before we lapse back into the doom and gloom, it’s worth noting the Commonwealth Fund’s statement on the UK’s healthcare outcome status. It found that “while the United Kingdom ranks 10th in the healthcare outcomes domain overall, it had the largest reduction in mortality amenable to healthcare during the past decade.”

That means that we’re near the bottom of the pile on this measure but at least we are improving more quickly than anyone else. It’s reason enough to crack open a cold one and toast our overstretched, underpaid but somehow still world-class NHS staff. Cheers!

 

by Jo Davey

The post Health: Our NHS is Best in the World appeared first on Felix Magazine.