The quality of service of the NHS is extremely low compared to its European counterparts. It’s not my problem, because I have a very comprehensive healthcare insurance from my employer, which costs more than 300£ per month per person.

Just to give a practical example, you can go through an entire pregnancy without ever seeing an NHS gynaecologist (I know because it’s my experience), and if you go to private doctors, which you should, 3 visits plus some ultrasound scans and tests may cost in excess of 3000£. Also GPs have a tendency to prescribe (random) medicines without referring patients to specialists, which is simply not civilised, and so you end up going to a private doctor and paying 2-300£ per visit.

A family of 3 can easily spend 5-6K£ per annum in healthcare, especially during the first years of the child.

With the NHS you need to "play" the system a bit unfortunately. The key is finding a great GP and asking for him/her by name when getting an appointment. There are a lot of terrible GPs out there and if you just listen to them you may get screwed. If you have a good GP (I would recommend looking up the practice and figuring the head GP there and then asking for him/her by name) the healthcare system is pretty good. Yes specialist referrals can take a while, but again if you have a good relationship with your GP they will be able to expedite it for you.

It's definitely not the same as the German system for example where every minor issue gets a million tests and multiple specialists, but usually that isn't needed. If you feel you need that and want to spend thousands on private appointments with specialists it is not going to be a good system for you. FWIW I've never ever heard of anyone that hasn't had loads of ultrascans in pregnancy. That is not normal at all.

> With the NHS you need to "play" the system a bit unfortunately. The key is finding a great GP and asking for him/her by name when getting an appointment. There are a lot of terrible GPs out there and if you just listen to them you may get screwed. If you have a good GP (I would recommend looking up the practice and figuring the head GP there and then asking for him/her by name) the healthcare system is pretty good. Yes specialist referrals can take a while, but again if you have a good relationship with your GP they will be able to expedite it for you.

Which means that the quality of service is worse than other countries, where you don't have to "play" the system or become friend with a GP to get referrals. Again, not my problem, I can use private healthcare, but this is not civilized.

> It's definitely not the same as the German system for example where every minor issue gets a million tests and multiple specialists, but usually that isn't needed. If you feel you need that and want to spend thousands on private appointments with specialists it is not going to be a good system for you.

As I said, it's not the same as the German or the Italian system, it is evidently inferior. I don't feel I need to spend thousands of pounds in appointments (I don't, my insurance pays), I feel I need to get a western European healthcare service (which, again, I get through my insurance), and I'm forced to go private because the NHS is not good enough. The point is that a German (or a French or an Italian) gets that for free and a Briton has to pay thousands of pounds for the same level of service.

> FWIW I've never ever heard of anyone that hasn't had loads of ultrascans in pregnancy. That is not normal at all.

I wrote "you can go through an entire pregnancy without ever seeing an NHS gynaecologist", not that you don't get scans. By the way, you do get 2 scans from the NHS, not loads. You get to see lots of midwives, which are not doctors, and lot of doulas, whatever they are, but unless somebody who is not a doctor thinks you need to see a gynaecologist, you don't get to see one, which is not civilized.