The NHS: Not Great for Health

Britain’s National Health Service Isn’t A World Beater, Forbes, October 30, 2016, "Last week, UK2020, a think tank founded by Conservative MP Owen Paterson, published a major study of “The UK Health System – An International Comparison of Health Outcomes,” by Dr. Kristian Niemietz of the Institute of Economic Affairs. It provides extensive and sober evidence for the contention that, regardless of what Britons (and others) think of it, the National Health Service (NHS) is not particularly good at reducing preventable deaths . Dr. Niemietz finds that over 46,000 people die annually in Britain who would have been kept alive if they had been treated by the best health system in the world. Even if they had been treated by the 12th best system in the world, 17,000 more people a year would live. The study quotes the Guardian’s assessment that “the only serious black mark against the NHS was its poor record on keeping people alive.” Quite."