NHS doctors, like doctors everywhere, are not infallible. They make mistakes. In the USA they are damn careful to avoid making mistakes because they could be sued for millions and then find that they are uninsurable, and hence unemployable, for ever afterwards.
The NHS is not like that because, generally speaking, the doctors are part of the state apparatus that should ensure good practice. It's in nobody's interest to rock the boat, especially politicians who want us to believe that the NHS is the envy of the world (and of course fantastic value: a snip at a mere 110 billion pounds per year).
It's "the closest thing that the British have to a national religion" (N Lawson), so newspapers are loath to criticise it. However, the fact is that people die every day through bad decisions and diagnoses made by NHS employees. We should at least be told, because I believe that we are grown-up to be told the truth. It is quite possible that these errors are an acceptable price. I would be that last to suggest that it is worth spending enough to ensure that not a single life is lost or ruined through NHS failure, but we do need the debate.
Before you make up your mind, you might like to look at the National Death Service, a blog devoted to pointing out the cases when the NHS screws up.
I should declare an interest. My mother had bad abdominal pains, loss of appetite and a feeling of nausea. She went to a local GP and was diagnosed as having indigestion and prescribed an anti-emetic and Gaviscon. A few days later she collapsed, was admitted to hospital where she was found to have a tumour the size of a grapefruit blocking her colon. Fortunately, because she was operated on immediately, she survived and is now symptom-free. But only because she had a lucky break.
