My experience with our public health system
Yesterday I went to hospital to have an operation courtesy of the public health system. The operation had been delayed once, but was done within six months. After I got wheeled into the operating theatre, they flipped a coin to see which eye they were to operate on, and so it was very fortunate that they operated on the correct eye. All staff and doctors were pleasant and cheerful - so it went pretty well. An hour or so later while in recovery, I got a couple of weak instant coffees and a biscuit that dissolved as soon as it was dunked.
While still under anaesthetic in recovery, I subsequently got chatting to one of the nurses - a democrat who had come over from the States two years ago to live and work. Lovely chap. He loves Helen Clark: "All politicians lie , but she's the best representative you could ever have in this country". He praised the freedom of speech here but was pretty ignorant of our Electoral Finance Act, which curbs that freedom. He was just glad he was living in a country that was more liberal and abortion wasn't such an issue. He appeared to take more than a passing interest in politics and thought Clinton was history in the primaries. So he is another Labour import who praised our easier access to politicians while not actually benefiting from that access.
After I had "recovered" in recovery, probably more from the nurse's comments on Clark than the operation itself, one of the doctors offered me a lift home - a friend, he lived around the corner from me and was commuting between hospitals. It`s not often you get a ride to and from hospital and get operated on by the person who picks you up, so all in all it was pretty good service from our local health system. The only downers were that when I rang the day before to confirm the operation nobody was there to process the call - and I now feel like I`ve been in a fight at the pub.