Note that not everything is free on the NHS, though. You have to pay for prescriptions (although this is soon to change for patients with long-term illnesses), and a proportion towards dental care.
Obviously it is not perfect, as waiting lists can be long, especially for non-urgent cases. Support for serious conditions like cancer, though, is pretty rapid.
Of course for non-urgent stuff there is the private care option. There is also a rather dodgy word-around waiting lists, too. If you pay for a private initial consultation with a surgeon (most do both private and NHS work), which costs about £200, he will then do your operation on the NHS (for free), but bump you up his waiting list. Usually saves you several months of waiting for the sake of £200, which sounds pretty good to me, if a mite corrupt.
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