The NHS lags behind other countries when it comes to treating common, life-threatening illnesses, an independent analysis produced for the BBC says. The report said the UK was a "below-average" performer on preventing deaths from heart attacks, strokes and cancer.
The NHS lags behind other countries when it comes to treating common, life-threatening illnesses, an independent analysis produced for the BBC says. The report said the UK was a "below-average" performer on preventing deaths from heart attacks, strokes and cancer.
But it does get less funding than services in the other 18 nations studied, the experts pointed out. The analysis also said there were some "definite strengths". These included providing "unusually good financial protection" from the consequences of ill-health and being relatively efficient.
The experts behind the analysis - one of five produced to mark the anniversary of the NHS- described the NHS as a "perfectly ordinary" service produced for a "middling level of cost".
It contrasted this with the boast by Nye Bevan, the minister who oversaw the creation of the NHS in 1948, that the service was the "envy of the world", at a time when few countries had a universal health system.
