Finest free health service,free to all.
Please tell me that this was intended as a joke.
Unlike the other posters here who have chosen to question the "free" aspect of this statement, I have a beef with the "finest" portion of the statement.
I am a Yank stationed in the UK with the military, and recently my wife and son were in an accident in which they ended up in an NHS hospital. My wife had surgery for internal bleeding and my son had a broken bone.
The treatment we recieved there was NOT REMOTELY what I would consider 'finest'. I would call it 'adequate' at best compared to the privatized health care I've been raised with.
The nursing staff was outstanding...I've never seen better, to be quite honest. What killed me was the 'recipe' method of health care which appears to proscribe particular methodology and drugs for each ailment, but does not allow deviations outside of that treatment regimen. This resulted in my son being allowed to scream in pain for hours on end when the muscle relaxant he was given did not work, and they either had no alternative drug available or failed to seek any alternatives.
What is even more interesting is the bill given to the USAF for the services. I'm not surprised that the UK needed to bill the US for the treatment -- we're not taxpayers, and as such don't have any right to access the NHS for free. No, interesting was the outrageous prices for the treatments my family recieved! People complain about the inflated prices that the US system generates...well, let me assure you that it's in the UK system, too, in full force. My son's skin traction for 4 days was approximately $50,000.
So, UK people, you need to realize that your health care, although 'free', is not the same standard of treatment that US citizens have access to, for all its problems.