The UK has failed to make as much progress in improving health care as other western European countries in the last 25 years, according to a major analysis published today.
The analysis places the NHS as the 30th best health care system in the world – five places ahead of the USA.
Published in The Lancet, the international project seems to rate national progress in tackling medically treatable disease.
It named Canada, Japan, Australia and many western European countries as having the best health systems.
The best health systems are in Andorra, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway, the analysis reports.
The greatest improvements since 1990 have been seen in South Korea, Turkey, Peru, China and the Maldives. The lowest scored was recorded for the Central African Republic.
Experts said the British record continued to be blighted by its poor record in cancer treatment – while mass control of blood pressure and improved stroke services led the UK to scoring highly for care of cerebrovascular disease.
Professor Martin McKee, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "The UK has made consistent progress since 1990, but with a score of 85 it now lags behind many of its European neighbours, including Finland, Sweden, Spain (all 90) and Italy (89), all of which have health systems very similar to the British NHS and so are most directly comparable.
"The gap between what the UK achieves and what it would be expected to, given its level of development, is also wider than in other western European countries."
Lead researcher Professor Christopher Murray, of the University of Washington, USA, said: "Despite overall improvement globally, there is variation in healthcare performance and few countries have consistently achieved optimal healthcare access and quality.
"By measuring healthcare quality and access, we hope to provide countries across the development spectrum with valuable data on where improvements are most needed to have the biggest impact on the health of their nation."
Lancet 19 May 2017 [abstract]
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