The NHS: Probably Still the World’s Best Health Service (BBC News / Commonwealth Fund / NEJM / NHS England / JAMA)

Summary

The Commonwealth Fund, a US think-tank, has re-compared data from 11 countries and – to the surprise of some commentators – again ranked the UK’s NHS as the being the best national health system overall. The NHS comes first (highest rating) for overall performance, and is rated to be the highest performer regarding care process (based on indicators including prevention, safe care, coordination, and patient engagement) and equity.

The NHS is rated 10^th (i.e. poorest but one) for healthcare outcomes.

“The UK health service was praised for its safety, affordability and efficiency, but fared less well on outcomes such as preventing early death and cancer survival”.

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Reference

Triggle, N. (2017). NHS ranked ‘number one’ health system. London: BBC Health News, July 14^th 2017.

This relates to:

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Reference

Schneider, EC. Sarnak, DO. [and] Squires, D. [et al] (2017). Mirror, Mirror 2017: international comparison reflects flaws and opportunities for better U.S. health care. [Online]: The Commonwealth Fund, July 2017.

The full report:

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Reference

Schneider, EC. Sarnak, DO. [and] Squires, D. [et al] (2017). Mirror, Mirror 2017: international comparison reflects flaws and opportunities for better U.S. health care [Report]. New York: The Commonwealth Fund, July 2017.

There is also a set of Statistical Appendices.

Summary: The international healthcare systems’ comparative rankings:

• 1^st UK.
• 2^nd Australia.
• 3^rd Netherlands.
• 4th New Zealand.
• 4^th (joint) Norway.
• 6^th Sweden.
• 6^th (joint) Switzerland.
• 8^th Germany.
• 9^th Canada.
• 10^th France.
• 11^th US.

“We based our analysis on 72 indicators that measure performance in five domains important to policymakers, providers, patients, and the public: Care Process, Access, Administrative Efficiency, Equity, and Health Care Outcomes”.

An NEJM article, examining the USA perspective:

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Reference

Schneider, EC. [and] Squires, D. (2017). From last to first – could the U.S. health care system become the best in the world? New England Journal of Medicine. July 14^th 2017. [Epub ahead of print].

Plans for continuing improvements from NHS England:

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Reference

UK health system comes out on top in new report. [Online]: NHS England, July 14^th 2017.

Comparisons are not simple:

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Reference

Papanicolas, I, [and] Jha, AK. (2017). Challenges in international comparison of health care systems. JAMA. July 27^th 2017. [Epub ahead of print].