Australia. In July 2017, the NHS was ranked the world's number one healthcare system in a survey carried out by the Commonwealth Fund, with Australia coming in at a very respectable second place.
Australia achieves substantially better healthcare outcomes than the UK. Cancer survival rates are several percentage points higher, while heart attack and stroke mortality rates are several percentage points lower.
Australia ranks first among OECD countries for equity and healthcare outcomes, and holds third place for overall healthcare performance, behind Norway and the Netherlands.
Cons of the UK Healthcare System
The NHS is known for long waiting times in both emergency rooms and offices with scheduled appointments. With recent stresses on the NHS – including reduced funding and too few staff – these waits are longer than ever. There are further waits to get referrals to specialists.
British doctors earn an average of £70,000. But in Australia, they earn an average of a practice's income, which is normally on average somewhere between £150,000-200,000 per year. And they do it with much less mental stress and fatigue.
And internationally trained doctors are more likely to move on for better pay or conditions. British doctors in Australia and New Zealand cite a better working environment, higher staff morale, two to three times the pay of UK practice, greater control over hours and more respect for the profession.
The four most common chronic conditions in the UK for men and women were allergy, high blood pressure, low back disorder and depression; allergy was the most common reported chronic health condition in both men and women (30.4% and 36.0%, respectively).
Healthcare System Performance Ranking
Key findings: “The top-performing countries overall are Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia. The United States ranks last overall, despite spending far more of its gross domestic product on health care.
A big factor of the Australian health care system is that it doesn't just cater to only those who are sick. Australia puts a big emphasis on disease prevention and health management so that emergency departments and public hospitals don't get overrun, believing that prevention is more cost-effective in the long term.
1. Sydney, NSW. Taking first place in this year's healthiest city rankings is Sydney, coming number one in the majority of the different categories. They also place the highest priority on their wellness compared to the rest of Australia, with 70% of Sydneysiders stated that wellness is a high priority for them.
OECD data shows that since 2018, Australia's annual total health spend in US dollars per capita has been under $6,000, against figures exceeding $10,000 per year in the USA. Consumer website Compare The Market cites that 73.4% of Australians are satisfied with their healthcare, compared with 54.2% of Americans.
Housing, transportation, food and drink, and healthcare are the major expenses to consider when comparing the two countries. While the cost of living in Australia is generally higher than in the UK, it offers a high quality of life and a great lifestyle.
Australia's nursing regulations are seen as more attractive than those in some other countries, including the UK: wages tend to be higher, there is greater job mobility and skill qualifications can often be recognised across all states.
The UK's NHS (National Health Service) is one of the world's best healthcare systems in the world, offering first-class, safe, and modern treatment and support. If you need a visa to study in the UK, as part of your application you will pay an Immigration Health Surcharge to gain access to the NHS.
Covid-19 represented a historic challenge to our health and care services as it did to the country as a whole.
Coronary Heart Disease is the biggest killer, causing almost 74,000 deaths each year in the UK. That's about 200 people dying every day. More than a quarter of the deaths occur in people who are younger than 75 and experts say the majority are preventable.
Diabetes is a major concern in the UK as the number of diagnoses have doubled in the past 15 years. In 2021 there were 4.1 million people in the UK diagnosed with diabetes, 90% of them having type 2.
These conditions have continued to be the leading causes of premature death in the UK over the past 20 years, and include non-communicable diseases commonly known as the 'five big killers' - namely cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and liver disease.
Smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity and harmful alcohol use are leading risk factors driving the UK's high burden of preventable ill health and premature mortality. All are socioeconomically patterned and contribute significantly to widening health inequalities.
In England and Wales in 2021, ischaemic heart diseases replaced COVID-19 as the leading cause of death among males of all ages.
Australia matches or performs better than many other comparable countries on selected measures of health. Compared with 35 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), we have: the fifth highest life expectancy at birth for males and the eighth highest for females.
The answer is based on your status as a citizen or resident of Australia. For citizens and permanent residents, Australian health care can be low-cost or free. The costs of healthcare in Australia are covered through taxes. Residents pay 2% of their income to the Medicare Levy, which funds the public system.
Australian health compared internationally
Australia performs above average or better than many countries – we have a more desirable rank in terms of life expectancy at birth, cardiovascular disease deaths, infant mortality, perceived health status, and tobacco smoking in the OECD.