UK - The Tragic Return of "The British Smile" as NHS Cannot Provide Dentists (or anything)

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https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/patients-treated-nhs-backlog/

bbc On Air

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/07/nhs-dentist-shortage-bristol-queue/

Just one in 350 patients treated on flagship scheme to cut
NHS backlog, as mum left waiting three years for surgery

. . .

BBC showed a line of people from yesterday in Bristol
that stretched down and around a city block - at first
glance you'd think Taylor Swift tickets were on sale.

But they were waiting to get an NHS *dental* appt -
some had problems for over a year, from minor to
agonizing. "Self-dentistry" is now becoming too
common to ignore.

It's not much better for other kinds of medical services.
Unless you have a lordly title in front of your name you
will have to wait a VERY long time, weeks, months, more,
for treatments. Even cancer patients and those with bad
hearts can't get in. Dying before you can ever see a doc
has become disturbingly common in the time since Covid.

Physicians/nurses keep going on strike, demanding lots
more money - but it's questionable whether that money
even exists anymore.

Those with a little extra money can sometimes find a
private doctor. Alas, as mentioned by BBC, even a
proper tooth filling might cost you 2000 pounds at
many private dentists.

USA, maybe $500 for just that - and you can get an
appointment in just a few days for the permanent
work - likely same-day for a temporary filling -
and that's for GOOD dentists with all the most
modern equipment and techniques.

For other maladies, the USA now has about six levels
of care to be had - "walk-in" clinics, "urgent care"
clinics, "elevated services" clinics (still just walk
in), "sub-emergency" - sort of mini-emergency rooms -
usually associated with a large hospital, and finally
for those who can't scrape up any money there's the
public health departments - cheap or sometimes even
free depending. All this before you even get to the
level of a full emergency-room/hospital.

For pensioners many of the outfits accept Medicare/
Medicaid, though not all. However the prices really
aren't bad and availibility is such that you'll almost
find too many choices.

Oh, then there are 'charity' orgs - religious or not -
that can help those seriously put out.

All this from the "inferior" US system.

Now, again, compare to UK NHS.

Something went BADLY wrong with the British "nanny
state" programs like the NHS. This problem did not
start just this year, or decade, but may be the
result of bad concepts and designs and magical
financing logic reaching all the way back to
the 1940s. Just offering a small rise to NHS
providers or importing lots of foreign docs with
possibly questionable credentials won't do.

or importing