Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

French healthcare shows there’s another way for the NHS

Credit: iStock

Nigel Farage says the NHS ‘isn’t working’ and has suggested the UK adopt a French-style heathcare system. He’s evidently been reading my articles here and here. French healthcare isn’t perfect but compared to the bedlam of what most British politicians refer to as ‘our’ NHS, it’s fabulous. I speak from knowledge. I have experience as a patient in both Britain and France. I know where I’d rather be sick.

Nobody here seems to be waiting 84 hours in an emergency room, as one NHS patient did in Scotland in 2022. When I was unfortunate enough to attend A&E at the Royal Surrey Hospital a few years ago after falling off a horse, the wait was interminable and the toilets were filthy. My complaint was met by an indifferent shrug.

The toilets are sparkling at the Polyclinique Pasteur, 20 minutes from my house in rural Occitanie. I took my wife there a few months ago after she’d broken a small bone in her foot.

Jonathan Miller
Written by
Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller, who lives near Montpellier, is the author of ‘France, a Nation on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ (Gibson Square). His Twitter handle is: @lefoudubaron

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