Doctor Crippen, the NHS Blog Doctor, does not recommend going to an NHS hospital if you can avoid it. Buried amongst hundreds of postings, I thought this random quote was rather enlightening:

We are witnessing the elevation of competence over excellence.

Anyway, my 96 hours in the Company of the medical profession was an interesting one and has given me a number of anecdotes to blog about. For the benefit of the squeamish to be able to skip on, they will all feature the crutch image as above, even though the contents may well vary in their biological frankness.

There are numerous private healthcare schemes in Britain, from £1:35 a week Hospital saturday Funds through to total Healthcare like BUPA. The reality though, is that private healthcare does nor provide emergency services- the NHS does all of the accident and emergency work (although you may be transferred to a private hospital once stabilised).

Never mind the no smoking and zero tolerance signs at hospital entrances, they ought to say this: