NHS: UK ranks first in global healthcare report
UK beats ten high-income countries for quality of healthcare, access to care and efficiency

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Britain's healthcare system is the best in the world, according to a study of 11 high-income nations carried out by an American foundation.
Of the countries included in the Commonwealth Fund report – Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US – the UK's healthcare system was deemed the second cheapest and the best performing.
The report looked at five main areas, including quality of healthcare, efficiency, access to care, equity and healthy lives. The UK came top for quality of care, access to care and efficiency, and third for timeliness of care, behind Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But it came close to the bottom of the table for 'healthy lives', which takes into account infant mortality, healthy life expectancy at age 60 and the number of deaths considered avoidable with medical intervention.
Only the US, which came last in the overall rankings, scored worse than the UK in this category. France ranked highest, followed by Sweden and Switzerland.
The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation based in the US, used data from the World Health Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, as well as its own international surveys of patients and doctors about medical practices and views of their country's health systems.
While the authors said there was "room for improvement" for all countries, they were particularly critical of healthcare in the US. Not only did it come at the bottom of the table, the other ten countries spent "considerably less" on healthcare per person and as a percentage of gross domestic product than the US, they said. "These findings indicate that, from the perspectives of both physicians and patients, the US healthcare system could do much better in achieving value for the nation's substantial investment in health," said the authors.
The UK has ranked in the top three countries surveyed intermittently by the Commonwealth over the last ten years. It took first place in 2007 but slipped to second in 2010, behind the Netherlands.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Why New York City was caught off guard by flash flooding
Talking Point Is climate change moving too fast or are city leaders dragging their feet?
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Today's political cartoons - October 2, 2023
Monday's cartoons - Biden's EV plan, the Senate dress code, and more
By The Week Staff Published
-
What is Rep. Matt Gaetz's endgame?
Today's Big Question The MAGA congressman loves to sow chaos, but there might be more to his latest moves than just disruption.
By Rafi Schwartz Published
-
Fixing the NHS workforce
The Explainer There are roughly 112,000 vacant posts in NHS England with nearly one in ten posts unfilled
By The Week Staff Published
-
Surgery faces ‘MeToo moment’ as female staff assaulted while operating
Two-thirds of women surgeons claim to have been sexually harassed and a third alleged assaults
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
What does UK’s first womb transplant mean for future of fertility?
Today's Big Question Procedure could be offered more widely including to transgender people
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
The NHS plan for virtual wards to beat winter crisis
feature Patients with respiratory infections to be given wearable devices that allow doctors to monitor them at home
By The Week Staff Published
-
The NHS at 75: can it make it to 100?
feature The NHS is facing almost unprecedented challenges, but support for the institution remains strong with the public
By Sorcha Bradley Published
-
Rishi Sunak’s NHS plan explained in five points
feature More apprenticeships and increased technology among ‘historic’ proposals
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
ADHD: the trouble with diagnosis
feature Waiting times for an NHS assessment for ADHD are years long in some parts of the UK
By The Week Staff Published
-
The racial disparities in British maternity deaths
feature Black women are nearly four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women
By Felicity Capon Published