The NHS myth
Sir: Susan Hill (Terror, sheer, profound terror', 15 September) gives thanks to the NHS for saving her from a wasp sting and then adds: 'There is no country in the world where you would receive the treatment I did, as of right and routine, in an emergen- cy, without reference to cost, because it was necessary and life-saving.'
She is, of course, completely wrong in believing this. In boring old Canada not only does everyone receive medical care at no direct cost to the user but private for-fee medicine is actually banned. Unlike the UK, she could not have paid for her treat- ment even had she wanted to.
Likewise, in Australia, New Zealand and in virtually all European nations Susan Hill will find universal health schemes covering all citizens. Needless to say, many offer ser- vice quite superior to the NHS.
Why do the British persist in believing that the NHS is the only 'free' national health scheme with no direct charges to its users? Even in the much-maligned United States, few if any patients go without emer- gency care.
62 St Clair Ave. West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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