Social service in UK vs. Spain (by Helena)

Not always is easy to compare the social services in different countries, because it is neccesary to understand the political, economical and even cultural characteristics of each country. Luckily, I can not compare all the social services that both countries offer,because I haven´t need to turn to them. But I can compare one of them, the National Health Service. While in other aspects of life UK is far ahead of Spain, it was a big surprise for me to discover that the UK has one of the worst Public Healths Service in Europe. Even I have a private health insuranse in this country, I only have used the public one. My first surprise was when I went to register with my local GP and I saw advertisements that said that if you suffer from a cold or you have temperature only ask for one appointment after going to see the pharmaceutical and stay several days really bad.I read as well, "one problem, one appointment",because each doctor has between 5 and 10 minutes to meet each patient. My experience with my GP is positive, but because the government is reducing the budget in health service, only GPs send you to see a specialist if they think that you are really bad. A blood or urine test is something that is only done in extremes cases. Now, that i´m pregnant, i can compare the big difference between both countries. Here, neither a gynecologist nor a normal consultant have seen me at the moment. Only I had a few appointments with a midwife, and two scans during all the pregnancy.I don´t know if you see on TV "one born every minute", but you can see how the hospitals works in the country. You give birth in a hospital room with one midwife and a nurse and only if you need a cesarean they send you to a operating room with a gynecologist. But not only you give birth in a dodgy hospital room but they send you home the same day. I couldn´t imagine having to go though this situation, for this reason I have decided return to Spain to have my second child there.