i think the nhs is being given a hard time here.
yes i am lucky to be based in some pretty good hospitals that really try their best, but yes there is faults. as for waiting lists, there is the 2 week waits for cancer and in decent hospitals the 18 week rule for time from referral to procedure is met (often with out needing to be)
as for hips, as i have a keen interest in orthopaedics i have obviously been exposed to this a lot, yes a few years ago the waiting lists were crazy, the main issue was that hips replacement had become a reliable and safer operation, so everyone wanted one (it is amazing the improvement they give) and this led to huge amounts of people wanting them and spiralling waiting lists.
the last couple of years, to astronomical costs the 18 week wait list has been met, which has also lead to a huge decline in the amount of private hip replacements (why pay when its the same time as the NHS?) it is only now this is being disbanded a bit, and yes this a shame, but two reasons 1) its the equivalent of me saying i could get to london from norwich in an hour, yes i could do it but it would cost me a grand in speeding tickets, fuel (and no doubt some repairs) 2) a large amount of patients present with hip pain to the consultant after years of having pain, if they were that fussed about waiting 2 more weeks surely they could have presented a few years earlier?
so yes it has its issues, but having spent time in a&e and seen how slick it works when some terrible traumas come in, and then the fact that a child can have neurosurgery that will give them their whole life back from a severe disorder under the costs, and then you hear of people in other countries not even calling an ambulance because of the costs, its bloody fantastic.
