[marron]

"and the effects of a savage cost-cutting programme undertaken in the mid-1990s which resulted in the closure of all military hospitals."

Ah, there it is, they don't even have military hospitals at all. Anyway, my shot at socialists isn't simply at their crummy medical system, but at the fact that, being socialists, they have underfunded their military to the point that the blokes have to pay for their own war injuries. Do they have to put up the bus fare to the front as well?

[gcruse]

In Canada, STDs are becoming such a problem that there is a move afoot to push STD cases to the front of the line for treatment.  That means resources will have to be pulled from less threatening areas to bring them to concentrate on handling STDs immediately.

Think of it as a soccer game.  The ball is over in the corner so everybody runs over to the corner, deserting the rest of the field.  Every crisis results in everyone running over to the new soccer ball.  Resources are not only strrained, but are being, in effect, triaged.  Then something like SARS comes in, and it's game over.

If the UK can't even rush their military wounded to the front of the line, they are nearing the collapse point of the system.