Nothings Perfect

For my group presentation, we are comparing UK's healthcare system against ours. In order to get a better understanding (and a more personal perspective) I contacted one of my friend's who is a teacher in the UK and this is basically what he told me:

" So, all in all, I have benefited from the NHS.
On the flip side it is extremely poorly managed and is under constant attack from the press and the public. Nurses are poorly paid (around 20,000 a year) whilst GP's receive 100,000 a year. It is nearly impossible to arrange a convenient time to see your GP due to massive patient lists and workloads so that I often just don't bother unless it is serious. Many patients for operations are put on massive waiting lists, often waiting up to years for operations. There is a lack of communication and true co-ordination between all the major departments and agencies which create the NHS. This is trying to be remedied by a massive database that can be accessed from all medical establishments, but despite this costing numerous billions, it still doesn't work properly and raises questions of confidentiality. The state of the hospitals can be quite horrific but this varies from place to place. Lack of cleanliness has seen a rise in superbugs in the wards, most notably MRSA. Public opinion sees the NHS as a free hospital for anyone in Europe funded by the British taxpayer. Many people travel to the UK to use the NHS for healthcare and then simply disappear back to their home country and avoid paying any costs which is a massive financial burden. There are numerous reports you can look up on this.
To couteract the points above many companies offer their employees private healthcare. So despite paying into this masive system many people also pay an additional £50 odd pounds a month to companies like PRUHEALTH and BUPA so that if they need attention they will receive a much higher level of care. I myself have been a member of PRUHEALTH in the past and also paid to see a private GP when fed up of a recurring skin problem which was remedied within a couple of weeks of going private, but dragged on for two years under state health.
I think, to summarise, that a person's experiences of the NHS vary greatly depending on what happens to them, where it occurs and where they are taken. Also where someone lives in the UK can have a huge influence. I believe the NHS is a fantastic idea, and functions considerably well, all things considered. However, it has become too large and unwieldy and thus loses a lot of money through over-management and misplaced funding"