I wouldn't swap my NHS for anything.
If I lived in the UK, I wouldn't either, having had experience with the NHS on several occasions. And if the Affordable Care Law (known to its opponents as 'Obama Care') ever realizes its potential and bypasses the insurance companies by at least allowing a single-payer option, we might begin to get the level of care that the NHS provides, at a lower cost for both the insured and the insurer. We have some distance to go before rising to the NHS level of care. I hope, though, that we'll learn from the UK and hire more medical practitioners, with an incentive to practice in under-served areas, rather than hiring more managers.
When I was a child and young adult, before the days of health insurance, my 'own' doctor could always work me in during office hours to deal with acute illness because fewer people could afford to see a doctor, so he just wasn't so busy. If he was on vacation, one of his two partners covered for him. Now more people can afford to see a doctor, so the offices are much busier, and even busier still since the first of last year when the Affordable Care Law went into effect. The doctors take care of the most complicated problems while the nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants see everyone else. I long ago got over feeling slighted by being directed to a nurse practitioner, to the point that I now see the same one routinely. She can still work patients with acute illness in right away and if the problem is too complicated for her to deal with she refers to a physician, if the patient won't be harmed by waiting for the appointment, or to the hospital emergency room if treatment is needed right away.
And in this part of the States, outside of normal office hours, but not during the night, there are a couple of acute care walk-in clinics staffed by nurse practitioners under the umbrella of the region's two large medical practices. As a last resort, there's the emergency room at our brand-new local hospital that replaced an older landlocked building with grossly inadequate parking. Its emergency room is extremely efficient, and all the rooms are private so if a patient has to be admitted he/she avoids the discomfort of sharing a room. There's a helicopter pad near the emergency room entrance for quick transfers to specialized hospitals. This area, at least, is very well cared for.
Marianna