Pity the Secretaries of State for Health. Whatever they decide, they will be blamed for failing to keep British medicine in the premier division. In my youth, the Americans lived in the only country that had better doctors than we did in Britain. It was probably as safe to be ill in Britain as in Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Scandinavia and Holland. But considerable caution was needed in the selection of a doctor in many European countries, as well as the Third World. The wise ill traveller at that time was probably well-advised to fly home to Britain as fast as he or she could. Even in Britain, there was wide disparity in the care offered in different parts of the country. But we could still claim that the NHS provided the best overall care that was available to the whole population. In 1981, when Sir Harold Evans...
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