UncleIan wrote:NHS, Brexit, religion. Articles of faith all three. No point trying to change people's minds, most are closed.
I'm glad that if I were ill, there's not a company whose goal is profit rather than my health that's decided what treatment I should get.
The NHS may not be driven by profit, but it is influenced by cost.
A recent example (anecdote*, not proof of anything, just to be clear).
A friend turned 55 and within 3 months was invited for a bowel scope screening at their local hospital. It's a relatively new offering within this particular NHS trust, based on clinical evidence that bowel screening detects early growths that could become cancerous, so saves lives by treating cancers earlier.
Anyhow, part of the procedure involves giving yourself an enema (with the kit provided) just prior to your appointment, so the scope can get an uncluttered look around. (This was told in the pub - I'll leave out the details of that bit of the procedure).
All is done and off he toddles to the hospital, arriving 10 minutes early. Unfortunately there is a 3.5 delay before he is seen, by which time the view in the scope is somewhat limited due to normal gut activity doing its thing for the last four or so hours.
He is informed that the screening is ineffective due to the excess material blocking the view, but was also told he would not be offered another appointment until his next normal screening date, as they didn't have the budget to provide repeat tests for situations like his.
NHS: box ticked - yes.
NHS: goal achieved - no.
NHS: room for improvement - absolutely.
That individuals within the NHS tries to do the best they can, I have no doubt, and as others have attested in this thread, they can do a really good job when allowed to. However, they are also under conflicting objectives and struggle to balance limited resources, as well as those resources having been both politicised and used as a political football for decades.
To your point that you are happy that the medical choices are in the hands of the NHS rather than an executive with a profit motive; it really depends on the nature of your illness and your local NHS trust as to whether their priorities will align with your needs:
When I broke a few bones (my own) I was taken to the local (to the accident) A&E which happened to be about 300 miles from where I actually live. I was seen immediately, sedated and booked into surgery within a couple of hours of the event. All good and a very happy customer at the end of it all.
18 months on and some of the screws from the metal plates pinning the bits of bone together were starting to break through my skin and cause problems. My (now local-to-home) consultant advised me to put up with it as it would settle down in due course.
A private consultation with another consultant told me that for my type of injury, the metal plates were routinely removed on the continent, exactly because of the issues I was having, but the NHS avoided doing this due to the cost unless absolutely unavoidable.
I went private and no longer have the metal plates (they had done their job by then).
I could offer more anecdotes, but I'm sure everyone has enough of their own. My observations from personal and family/friends/colleagues can be summarised in that the NHS does a great job where it does a great job, but is, remarkably, too often blocked from finishing a job properly, or guilty of delaying tactics so as to limit costs in the short term. It also has some incredible inefficiencies in terms of workflow and communications processes.
VRD
*I chose this anecdote as I have also recently turned 55 and just received the same invitation, so somewhat apprehensive!
) And I was whipped straight into hospital as soon as they saw my X rays, no questions asked, and really wonderfully cared for. First class. Even the food was good! 
But for me, the fact that the NHS didn't think that way says something pretty important about what a precious organisation we have on this side of the pond.