Wow--this is quite an experience. Did you get your vision back? I don't quite know why this is a mild indictment of the NHS, though---you had the means to pay cash. Do you think you got better care paying cash? I didn't get that. I suffered a detached retina in one eye--and the doctor took three days to operate (weekend, you know) and this then led to three more operations and that eye is now permanently blind. This was in the US. I had insurance I paid $700 a mo for. Almost as much as my mortgage. Now, even that crummy plan has changed and I would need to pay $3800 upfront to get a lens put back in my eye...which I cannot do. The doctors have lost interest in me at this point. I wonder if that is reason. My vision is so useless, the lens is probably not even justified. Re the letter above: France by many metrics has the best care in the world. I am jealous!