For more than a decade, the British government has run its National Health Service, the world’s largest government-run healthcare system, on a tight budget. The NHS prides itself on having one of the leanest health care systems in the developed world, spending less on average per person than its larger European neighbors – and much less compared to the US
Now the state-funded service is crumbling. People who have a heart attack or stroke wait an average of over an hour and a half for an ambulance. Hospitals are so full that they are turning away patients. A record 7.1 million people in England – more than one in 10 – are stuck on the waiting list for non-emergency hospital treatment such as hip replacement. The NHS faced the biggest strike in its history on Monday with thousands of paramedics and nurses running out of pay,