Published 17 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a838
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a838

Analysis

Personal paper

A transatlantic review of the NHS at 60

¹ Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 20 University Road, 7th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Analysis, doi: 10.1136/bmj.a824

At the NHS Live conference celebrating 60 years of the NHS at the beginning of July, Donald Berwick explained why he admires the UK health system and how it could be even better

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Cynics beware, I am romantic about the National Health Service; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country.

The NHS is one of the astounding human endeavours of modern times. Because you use a nation as the scale and taxation as the funding, the NHS is highly political. It is a stage for the polarising debates of modern social theory: debates between market theorists and social planning; enlightenment science and post-modern sceptics of science; utilitarianism and individualism; the premise that we are all responsible for each other and the premise that we are each responsible for ourselves; those for whom government is a source of hope and those for whom government is hopeless. But, even in these debates, you are unified by your nation’s promise to make health care a human right.

No one in their . . . [Full text of this article]

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