Chapter 1: The NHS is the envy of the whole world... or is it?

You are not so great, Britain

Once upon a time, I (Tomasz) was asked to write a series of articles about how Britain looks through the eyes of foreigners. I simply had to start with the NHS. It's a recurring topic of every conversation between EU citizens in the UK. I think pretty much every European we met - from Bulgarians to Portuguese - have very bad opinion of British health service. Yes, some elements of it are pretty good, but in general, the service is terrible.
It's absolutely normal for Europeans living in the UK that if they want to get medical help, they fly out to their own country.
Yet if you ask any Briton, it's completely the opposite. They believe their health system is the best and it's an object of envy of the whole world and people from all over Europe flock to those islands to try and benefit from it. The facts, of course, are completely opposite. But Britons don't want to hear any of it. For them, the NHS is like a religion. And you can't criticize someone's religion.
This is why they refused to publish the first of my articles. "You can criticize anything you want, but you can't criticise the NHS" - said the editor. But I won't be told what I can and cannot criticize in my articles. And I won't start my series by removing the whole topic I found one of the most important when it commest to how different the perception of Britain is in the eyes of the natives and the incomers. So I pulled out of that project, teamed with Elisa and we decided to make it into a podcast. And so, here we are. Enjoy the listen - even if you might not like what you hear.
But remember - it's for YOUR OWN GOOD!