What can you tell us Yanks about Healthcare in the UK

The railways in this country were hopeless long before they were privatised. They are still hopeless now, with a few exceptions.

While I don't remember the bad old days of BR very well (too young) I'd argue that the same systematic problems are still at least as bad as they were (trains slow, old and delayed) only now the service is also much more expensive, overcrowded, impersonally staffed and less well integrated nationally. So, a net fail.

When I was hit by a car in 2000 I was admitted to a disgustingly dirty ward in the Royal London staffed by uppity nurses who thought cleaning up things like the used vomit bowls was beneath them and flat out refused to remove them.

Nursing care is interesting. You now need to be academically qualified to work as a nurse (diploma or degree) and nurses are being given more responsibility for diagnosis and performing medical procedures. The academic qualification is ridiculous - my ex is a nurse, and a good one, but can't write an essay to save her life - and the increased clinical responsibility is entirely due to nurses being cheaper than doctors and nothing to do with standard of care.

I'd speculate that a private system would either be prohibitively expensive (see entire thread) with nurses and doctors in more "traditional" roles, or would go down the same route as the NHS (which, as many have pointed out, is now obsessed with private sector ideas of "cost" and "competitiveness") except more so, with more nurse-led treatments.

Bear in mind that at the moment the private system is integrated with the NHS and reaps all its advantages - all it needs to do is provide a more attentive service to the top whatever-percent of people that are privileged enough to afford the insurance. Population-wide private care would look quite different, particularly to those on average or low income.