I'm unfortunate enough to have three chronic and related conditions that affect my brain, optic nerves and immune system. The medication I need costs the NHS £657 per month, were I to buy it myself it would cost over £1500.
I spend a great deal of time visiting Accident and Emergency and the GP. There are long queues but if there is something really wrong you will be seen quickly and sorted out - the doctors know who should be there and who shouldn't. I have a direct phone number for my GP and neurologist both of whom will take my call no matter the time of day.
For example this afternoon I lost a large amount of vision in my left eye - I got to the ophthalmological A&E at 4pm and was quickly walked through a half a dozen eye and blood tests, got the treatment I needed and was out of there by 6pm with a consultant appointment and MRI scan booked for next week.
A good friend of mine's car was literally run over by a bus a few years ago whilst in a remote place. Collapsed lungs, broken pelvis, shattered collarbone, shattered shoulders and a broken back. The 999 operator realised the seriousness of the accident and had an air ambulance to her within 15 minutes, the flight surgeon was able to re-inflate her lungs, and they got her to the national spinal trauma centre less than an hour after the crash. That air ambulance is the only reason she's alive today.
My god daughter caught measles age 11 weeks and developed a cyst in her brain that, as it turned out took up a quarter of the volume of her skull, she stopped breathing as a result. The 999 operator talked her mother through CPR, despite being a 2 hour drive from the nearest hospital they had an ambulance to her within 20 minutes, got her to the nearest major hospital 2 hours later, identified the problem within an hour and she was then placed in a specialist ambulance with a doctor and nurse who took her to the nearest paediatric neurological intensive care unit 150 miles away. By 9am the following day she was being operated on by one of the top paediatric neurosurgeons in the country.
All of that was free.
When the chips are down and you're at death's door, despite the problems of an organisation with 1.6 million staff caring for 67 million people, you really do want to find yourself in an NHS hospital.