I am led to believe that things in Ireland have improved since I left (don't thank me...) but am still amazed over here - a friend was visiting with her toddler a couple of years ago and needed to get him seen by a doctor; our GP handles private patients so they had a facility in place to do that, but when she took his prescription to the chemist they were really surprised and apologetic, IIRC, that he had to pay - even though he was only a baby!

Also, when I visit Ireland, I take my magic EU/NHS card thing with me and my GP appointments and a lot of my prescriptions are free - they get claimed back later from the NHS. This was INCREDIBLY helpful when I had to go live with Mum for a month while I had post-viral fatigue and me and both children also got horrific chest infections and things.

The NHS has its flaws, and I've been on the cutting end of some of them, but I am still incredibly impressed, amazed and delighted by it.