It used to be better. When I first lived in the UK, going on thirty years ago, it was brilliant. Even fifteen years ago both NHS and private were head and shoulders (and more) better than the US (I have intimate experience with both sadly).

The deliberate destruction, in the name of profit, of the NHS across the last decade makes me more angry than just about anything anywhere.

> It will get worse with ai.

I've had to self-diagnose and then just plainly guide several of my doctors, even specialists, on diagnostics (for evidence) and subsequent treatment.

I've had some really lame infections and things going on, and most of my GPs over the years would just pin it down to anxiety or blindly prescribe antibiotics (made things much worse).

I've lost all faith in the average doctor's expertise, so I expect AI must be better but at the same time realize the whole system gets inexplicably worse as a human being on the other end, despite advances in technology.

> I've had to self-diagnose and then just plainly guide several of my doctors, even specialists, on diagnostics (for evidence) and subsequent treatment.

Being involved in your own treatment is very important. In my opinion, it’s folly to expect your doctor to know everything. I can read descriptions of similar diseases and problems and be able to compare my symptoms. You generally know your body better than anyone.

Ok, so you've received low quality health care and you think a hallucinating bot is the solution? What if we, you know, start hiring competent people? Or change the system to allow them to become competent?

> What if we, you know, start hiring competent people?

I've seen enough doctors at this point in completely different specialities and they're all reliably pretty bad. After so many years of education and experience.

To me this backs-up another common sense fact: experts often suck and persist in their error because they've built an entire toolbox of sophisticated mental tools that are able to support their erroneous thinking. To me this is why experts of all sorts are often in the position of arguing "don't believe your lying eyes" to normal people.