Every year, all over the country, millions of people, for millions of reasons, pay a visit to their local GP.

Every year, all over the country, thousands of people are admitted to hospitals, which, unless they pay for private treatment, will be paid for and managed by the NHS.

Every single person in this country will rely on the NHS at some point in their life. Whether it is them being supplied with free glasses, or going for a check up every so often, it is a service they will use, probably without a second thought.

But what if that service wasn’t available?

Every year, the NHS receives thousands of complaints, about its ‘poor management’, about the way they handle funds given to them, about the way patients are treated, about mistakes that staff have made.

And mistakes are made, mistakes with devastating consequences.

For example, a recent report by the Telegraph shows that one in six NHS patients are mis-diagnosed. Of over 9,000 complaints made about the system, 1 in 10 relates to poor diagnosis, or the wrong diagnosis being made.

Another report shows that 2,009 of patient deaths were related to errors made by A&Es within the NHS, and another 3,708 cases ended in severe harm.

So mistakes are made; that much is clear from the figures and reports. But surely everyone would be worse off if the system simply didn’t exist?

What if, because the NHS is ‘poorly managed,’ which leads to a further 6,000 or more complaints a year, it was taken away?

Mistakes are made, but that doesn’t take away the fact that, due to the NHS, many more lives are saved than are taken.

If the NHS simply didn’t exist, millions of people around the country would be affected. They would have no access to medical care, as they would not be able to pay for private treatment.

There is room for improvement. Change is needed. But I personally believe that, if the NHS didn’t exist, the entire country would be a lot worse off than now, when it does, and when it saves so many people and changes so many lives. Whatever the problems, the fact that such a service is provided should be acknowledged, and appreciated. Because, quite frankly, where would we be without it?