Hospital performance slumps across UK

Healthcare in the UK was a national election issue. So both sides are claiming that the UK's "system" is in need of overhaul/assistance. Firstly, while the statistics do show the hospitals, they only show the portion they wish you to see. The pharmacy portion is linked to everywhere. So the pharmacy Boots (UK's equivalent of Walgreens) handles everyone. It handles private as well as government medical. Irrespective of who your doctor is, your prescription will be filled at Boots. Boots like most UK pharmacist's also have full doctoral staff. So a lot of UK hospitals are exhorting patients with non-emergent care, to seek the pharmacist. This is having the desired effect as tons of folk are going to the chemist instead of waiting in the long lines at the doctor. Its a win-win. Unfortunately, the town's alloted government money is being used to expand Boots.

So in my father in law's hometown of Paignton, in the county of Devonshire, three of his local Boots' have expanded waiting areas, extra triage suites, etc. Basically miniature hospitals. This is money however, that came out of the county hospital funds. So on the front of it, it looks like the hospitals are losing money when in reality, the hospitals are transferring a lot of care to the Boots' and other places. Now sadly, as with all things political, this is a delicious meal to some. If my party feels that the hospital needs more money then I'm going to take that statistic and announce it as such: "see - look here, the hospital is losing patients to Boots because they can't afford to care for people." Yet, the same stat could be spun the other way, "look here, Boots is seeing more patients, so we need to expand the services of..." etc etc.

Also, there is a third component of British healthcare (and European care in general) which is home help. My father in law gets visited daily by a nurse/emt as do thousands who need care, but don't need to physically be in the hospital to get the care. Also note that the UK has multiple healthcare systems. My English wife is on the traditional NHS system where she can go anywhere in the UK. My plan on the other hand is BuPA where I can only go to set clinics and hospitals, but I get to go when I want/need to go. Whereas my wife has to be in the waiting room all day. NHS is what little over half of the nation is on. So the statistics do not cover the pro's and cons of the non nationalized schemes.

Your comment implies that you understand neither ObamaCare nor the National Health System. They are nothing alike.