The NHS has plunged down the rankings in Bloomberg’s Health Care Efficiency Index this year, falling 14 positions from 21^st to 35^th. The UK now ranks below Algeria, Mexico, Costa Rica and China in the efficiency of its healthcare provision. The Top 10 is dominated by Asia-Pacific countries including Hong Kong, Korea and Australia. None of those countries have a single monolithic provider of socialised healthcare.

‘Healthcare reform’ does not mean adopting the US system wholesale as critics like to claim or pouring billions into an unreformed system – 16 other European countries manage to come in ahead of the UK, while the US languishes almost 20 places below. Politicians from all parties never tire of claiming that “Our NHS”^TM is the envy of the world, this is simply not true…