I'm a british citizen and have lived in Todi for the past 15 years. I have had three pregnancies and various sprains, breaks and check ups all followed at Todi hospital and completely agree with the authors comments. I'm delighted that our small unappreciated hospital has recieved a "pat on the back". And I'm not related to any of the doctors.

Charlotte Shaw, Todi, Italy

Although Todi is a good example of a small hospital, the authir did say that it was under constant threat of closure. Why, one should ask? The author states that Italians are also expected to bring in the daily essentials of soap, loo paper etc! I think I can see the headlines 'Our NHS cannot afford loo paper!' or 'no soap to wash our hand with superbug in hospitals'.

Members of public must lend a hand in helping their loved ones when in hospital. What is wrong with helping bedbath or wash their hands like this patient did by taking his own temperature! When members of the public helps it means a lot of time saved for the staff to look after the more invloved side of the care.

So if the public want a better healthcare system then they too must realise that they have to help after all they are the ones the hospitals will be looking after sooner or later.

Chin Swain, Woolmer Green,

"...given the typical English rudeness against whoever don't speak their language and foreigners in general (especially Italians)."

I've been living in England for two years now and have found the English to be nothing short of incredibly helpful when I (used to) stumble through conversations with them. What makes you think they have a problem with Italians especially?

Sofia, Liverpool,

Ms Righter, Thanks a Lot for having visited Italy and Thanks for having writen something positive and Grateful about Us. Welcome again, everytime You want. I take this Occasion to Invite Emanuele not to say craps and rude stereotypes about a Country that He doesn't know. I lived Five Years in England and I have always been treated in a very Fair way, bear also in mind that in London foreign Languages. speakers are more than English Mother Tongues. Before throwing insults like that, please have a look at how many Italians (and Foreigners) have gone and go to UK just to claim Social Security Benefits. However I have to remind that the South of Italy is in a Condition of Impressive bacwardness. Also the Hospitals are in the Hands (directly of indirectly) of Corruption, and Criminality. Emilia Romagna and Umbria have a highl level of standard. Try to step in to any Hospital of Campania to see the Difference. You gonna have the Impression of being in a Less Developed Country.

Salvatore Bruno, Naples, Italy.

I am an Italian doctor and have worked both in Italy and the UK. I think both systems have good and bad and you can get excellent care in either system. Alot depends on the doctor. I can say that I enjoyed working in the NHS and I have recieved alot of support from my collegues and learnt lots.Thanks for the article it is nice that once in a while good work is appreciated!

Francesca, London,

I started my "British" adventure back in 1997, with a broken foot. I was admitted in Rome's San Filippo Neri, just 24 hrs before my scheduled flight to London. The consultant who visited me said: "the difference between Rome and London hospitals is the same as the difference between Cairo and Rome hospitals". I thought that was a fair ranking within our Italian common perception of public services. I was considering London NHS hospitals very well. Such consideration came to an end 2 yrs ago: my wife was in labour of a 28 weeks premature baby, at the Royal Free NHS. At the crucial moment the doctors submitted my wife a disclaimer for using forceps (on a tiny 28weeks old faetus!). Thankfully my wife refused demanding a cesarean section instead. Anna made it and she is a lovely child. A leaked document from NHS was later published in the press, in which the NHS management requested doctors to "cut" all the "unnecessary" surgical operations. Is London now like Cairo?

Sergio, London,

I am italian..and i am neapolitan. I can say without problems that writer's brother would have enjoied the same service in the south. I'm a Red Cross rescuerer and I know the real
condition in neapolitan hospitals. Having said this, I can tell you that in Castel di Sangro's hospital my mother was waiting for a visit 45minutes...she went for a heart disease...so, as you can see, there no connection between cityes and hospital serivice.

Antonella Evangelista, Napoli, Italy

At any rate, I'm sure a foreigner would never receive such a treatment in an English hospital, given the typical English rudeness against whoever don't speak their language and foreigners in general (especially Italians).

Healthcare aside, this article is a great lesson for everyone about hospitality.

Emanuele, Roma, Italy

As a Type 1 diabetic, and therefore a 'frequent user' of the NHS, I am pleased at the level of care I get. OK, Not everything can be catered for on every occasion for everybody, but I would far rather have a chronic illness in this country than, say, the U.S.A. Having lived there for a while, with very good health insurance from my multinational employer, I found even getting a routine appointment challenging. Not only do you have to pay ($10) to just see the doctor, I was, on more than one occasion, left waiting for up to 3 hours with no explantion, even when I had made appointments.
My dad was recently taken ill and had to undergo emergency surgery; his treatment was exemplary and he couldn't have asked for more. Basic things such as a razor and toothbrush were supplied to him to make him more comfortable until visitors could get there, and this was on a weekend where it may be imagined that service would suffer.
The NHS has problems yes - but also has a lot of things going for it

Jo S, Hertford, UK

I'm italian and i agree to all "have your say" wrote above, in italy hospital condition are as very good as very horrible, maybe in todi , a liitle city, all works nice...but think about conditions in neaples or in a big city.
But i think , i'm sure of this, difference is all on that you can cure yourself without pay nothing it's free for all italians. I don't know how it works in UK but i don't agree at all to a Nation system like in USA. Your life your health is a human right not a bill. Thanks for nice article.

antonio, milan, italy

I'm Italian and guess what? I come from Tuscany and I live in London. And the Italian Health System, at least in the Centre of Italy, is much better than NHS here. Since I have moved to the UK, three years ago, I have changed 4 GP and I have never found one really good. Can you trust someone who doesn't even visit you and tell you to drink more Ribena and to rest? And what about appointment? If I don't feel well today, why should I wait till tomorrow, if I'm lucky? In my own town, you just go to your own GP and wait your turn. If you very unwell, the doctor may come to visit in your own place. Ok, I understand, now the question is why did I leave this paradise to come to live in crazy London? But because it was deadly boring! Tuscany is good for holidays, if you are not born there :-) London is much more exciting (not only jobwise) and much healthier. I used to go to the doctor at least once a month in Italy. Here I have been to the GP only once, I know I can't get sick!!

Fede, London, UK

I live in London and I can only say that my experience with the NHS has been an absolute disaster on numerous occasions. So bad that during my pregnancy the NHS lost the results of a very important test result since everything is written by hand!! What happen to computers?? I had a complication at the end of my pregnancy which no midwife or GP had realized so I can only say that my daughter was very lucky to be born in Rome in an excellent state hospital. If she had been born in London today my child most likely would have had a number of birth defects.

Cristina, London,

I am Italian, my wife is Japanese and we live in Canada. We have three children, two born in Italy and one in Japan. The reason? we find these places better in terms of health care. I personally fly to Italy whenever I have some serious problem, for example I was told in Canada I have hernia, and that it would take about 6 months to get it cured (surgery). I called my mom (did I say I am Italian?), and booked in Italy I flew and solved the problem while on vacation in less than a month. I am from Tuscany, I know there is a lot of heterogeneity among regions, so I cannot speak for other places.
By the way, waiting time in Toronto's ER? 7 hours for a broken foot!

Vincenzo, Toronto, Canada

There are some good hospitals in Italy, and it's true, in England, where I live (Cambridge) I'm not impressed by the medical services, hospital and GPs, I always leave with a sense of frustration after I see any doctors here. But I come from the South of Italy (Palermo, Sicily), and believe me, there it is almost third world NHS. Mafia has a huge control over public (and private) health institutions. Sad.

ermanno, palermo , italy

I enjoyed this article for it shows, with great English sense of humor, the real situation in a small Italian hospital in centre Italy. Thanks to the professionalism of local doctors and nurses an ill foreign national was treated at the best.
We have to stop thinking that everything coming from country A is good and everything coming from country B is not good. I personally believe (supported by press articles and accounts of British friends) that NHS have many problems like many other American and European health Institutions in Germany, Spain, Belgium and Italy for example. I strongly believe that in the end who makes the difference are the individuals.Humanity and professionalism of doctors and nurses are the one that make this difference. In the Italian case professionalism and humanity were at the top.

Marco, Milano, Italy

There's something true in this history: the first, basically, I think that any physician or nurse or others health professional - everywhere they are - ought to believe in what they doing! I have seen in India or Africa very serious and competent doctor. There's not organization or management (Italian ASL or NHS) who could change and avoid the incapacity and lack of understanding the human sorrow and pain. But this is not only a financial or political problems, it's an Ethical problem. In Italy, in England and everywhere!

Roberto Ravera, Sanremo, Italy

I'm Italian and my father is a doctor, so i know very well how our hospital work because i spent part of my time there even if I wasn't ill.
Anyway, I'm glad of journalist's words; maybe we have not a perfect service everywhere, but our doctors are very gentle.

Antonio, Milan, Italy

My wife pregnant 4 months went to archway hospital, north london because she felt very sick and in pain...after sitting in the reception for 3 and half hour with blood down her legs, I did complain with the receptionist, all she did was calling a security guard!!! after another 1 hour a doctor come down to see my wife, and tell her to go home and wait for the miscarriage!

vittorio, london, uk

As said, there are good and bad hospitals in every country. I'm glad a british citizen has received in Italy the best cares for his worrisome health. Europe have to be a safe home for each european. Happy holidays!

Marco Ricordi, Roma, Italy

The treatment you received was 'Umbrian-style' rather than 'Italian-style'. Italy's health services are under the direct control of the regional governments (all 20 of them). You can't generalise. The quality of the services varies as much as the cuisine of the regions themselves. Sicily (population 5,000,000) seems to need 8,000 private clinics and laboratories to function. Friuli Venezia Giulia, with 1,500,000 people in the extreme north-east gets by with a mere 17! What does this say about the quality of the respective services? I leave people to draw their own conclusions from these numbers but one can safely say that Sholto's chances of returning to London alive were closely (but not completely) correlated to the latitude along the Italian peninsula at which the viral carditis struck.

Paolo Bagarino, Roma, Itay

I am pleased that this case turned out so admirably. However, as many Italians and expats living in Italy - even in large areas such as Florence and Milan - heathcare in this country is not universally so brilliant. It was fortunate that there was an English speaking doctor; at many major hospitals in the Tuscany area you may not find anyone, including a nurse, who speaks English. I am an expat living in Florence, and my own Florentine doctors have advised me on numerous occasions, for numerous situations, to return to the UK for what they charecterized as a healthcare system that is - at the least more efficient, and often more advanced in treatment. Due to a mistake in an Italian hospital of treatment of my fractured foot I had to return to the UK for corrective surgery. Again, it is wonderful that all turned out well for the writer's family, but it is misleading to presume that one fortunate situation is indicative of the quality or superiority of the Italian medical system overall

Anna, Florence, Italy,

I think the story Mrs. Righter told us didn't wanted to generalize anything. It was only a record of one single experience.
Italy's public healt system (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, SSN) has many problems: corruption, public money waste (due to the regionalization of budgets), a huge political interfearence over doctors carreers, and many others that oviously reflect themselves on the quality of medical threatments and of care.
There are also many points of excellence (even in Naples, regardeless what doctors told to Mr. Dawson in Imola) and i will not spend words on those.
To listen to a story is an enrichment in knowledge always, to generalize is a mistake, at least if you are not a scientist who plays with big numbers.

Stefano Vanorio, Napoli, Italy

I agree, complaining about Italy and its public services is quite an "Italian tradition", and often Italians fail in appreciating what works well. Also, they often think that services in other countries are automatically better, which is often absolutely false, as I could see having travelled quite a lot.
However, it is impossible to understand Italy without understanding that it is an extremely heterogeneous country (much more than, e.g., France, UK or Germany), with enormous differencies between North and South in almost everything: from culture to mentality, until even physical appearences of the people (!). In the North there are areas where the official language is German which are miles away from the stereotype of the "Italian", which often abroad coincide with the person of the South. In this respect, for example Milan is really a completely different world from Naples. This makes very difficult to understand Italy for foreigners, and from this several prejudices come from.

Tom, Milan, Italy

As an Italian I do have to clarify what exactly happen. That is a typical, small, well working province hospital, tha our NHS, in all His mugnificience, would like to close and transfer all to the big hospitals. If you were in any big gities hospital, in big cities, it would not be so good. And I mean, any hospital in any italian city, from north to south. And, if possible, never ever tust a private hospital. Public hosiptal could see old, but are normally much better than private one

Corrado Musso, Blaubeuren, Germany

Italian health system is county-based. If you are examined in a hospital of the regione(county) Emilia-Romagna,probably one of the best system in Italy and in Europe, you could be impressed, but If you are in Sicilia things are totally different.

P.S. sorry for my euroenglish

E. G., Ferrara,

Nice story; everyone here in Italy talks about it.
But it is often a matter of luck: this hospital has good people working in it. "Meno male!"
Just a doubt: did Ms Righter tell the hospital's staff she's a journalist?

On the comment above: "she was told that she was lucky it happened in Imola and not Naples".
I see, a lot of people are really racist there (not telling that Naples hasn't a lot of serious problems, but some Northern are always ready to see us all as uncivilized or thieves).

Raffaele, Naples, Italy

"Meno male" ("menos mal", in Spanish) is difficult to translate, but means literally "less bad". It could be translated as "fortunately".

Osvaldo Pérez Sammartino, Buenos Aires, Argentina

I am italian; i would say the italian health system is generally good...if something happens in Imola, Todi, Roma or Milan, the service can be radically different from Agrigento, Naples or Palermo. Having said this and not knowing the British NHS, i would say that the italian health system is generally pretty good, with good standards. Having said this, i don't know if the writer's brother would have enjoied the same service in the south.

PAOLO GENOVESI, HARARE, ZIMBABWE

It's difficult to compare the Italiaa healthcare system with the NHS based on one lady's account of one visit to one hospital - there are dreadful hospitals all over the world, just as there also fanastic hospitals all over. Whilst I'm sure lessons could be learnt from the hospital mentioned in this article, my experiences of the bureaucracy of the Italian healthcare system convince me that it is indeed best to be ill in your own language, in your own country.

L, London,

My son had his tonsils removed in a state hospital in Athens 3 months ago. His room was cleaned and the bathroom disinfected every day, the ward matron checked on everybody regularly and the ward was quiet and spotlessly clean and shining. I saw the cleaners wash down walls and doors and door handles. No nurse ever touched him without gloves -and this was just a minor operation. My husband was treated at Harley Street and is still treated regularly in 3 Hertfordshire hospitals - have I ever seen a nurse or member of stuff wearing gloves or disinfecting their hands? You bet I have...

Alice, Stevenage,

About Italy and Italians: You can say all the good, you can say all the bad and you are always right... I agree that we Italians are keen on being very pessimistic and skeptical about everything belongs to our government, especially health-care. It depends on were you land, other hospitals can be really terrible (especially in big cities), some are pretty good. We have on average fairly good medical doctors but always bad politicians.

Mauro, Milano, Italy

Thank you - we italians always have to learn the good things happening here through the foreign press !! All the best!

Alessandro Canelli, Bologna, Italy

The food in the NHS is a real shame, my father spent two weeks in a London hospital last summer and it was like eating postwar food. Forward one year after and while on holiday in the north of Spain, he has two spend a week in a Spanish hospital where the cooks are proud of their jobs and prepare the food with the love a patient need. Fresh, well cooked, good choice and healthy. In the NHS they employ whoever to cook food , people who usually take no pride in their job ,come from third world countries such as Ghana , Nigeria or Somalia most of the times and have very low standards and no idea of how to cook.Sorry but when i poped by out of curiosity in the Hampstead royal free kitchen I was shocked. In England we should have the same hospital food standards as the rest of western europe.

Mary Jackson, london, uk

The World Health Organization has carried out the first ever analysis of the world's health systems. Using five performance indicators to measure health systems in 191 member states, it finds that France provides the best overall health care followed among major countries by Italy, Spain, Oman, Austria and Japan. [http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_centre/press_release/en/index.html]
For the record: the Republic of San Marino, ranked third, behind France and Italy, is an enclave within Italy.

Paolo Cappelletti, Milan,

Praise the Italian health service by all means, but leave the poor old NHS out of it unless you have some evidence to support your prejudices, will you? You'd 'almost certainly have waited longer than half an hour to be seen by an intern', eh? Tried being admitted to any NHS hospitals with chest pain recently? I thought not.

NHS hospitals have their problems. Fast response to genuine emergencies is not generally one of them. This sort of reflex bashing of a perfectly good service is a national disease which is just depressing for those of who are providing the service day in and day out.

If you have an MI (which your brother didn't) in Britain your chances of receiving your clot busting treatment or primary angioplasty within the hour is among the best in Europe.

Sorry about the view from the window: no mediaeval jewels.

Dr TG Reilly, glasgow,

There are good and bad hospitals everywhere no matter which country you are in. For example, I noticed there is no mention of the patient that died at a hospital in florence when the power was cut off?

John, SIena, Italy

While it is heartening to find out that the NHS has at least one satisfied customer in the form of Adrian from London, I am afraid that Adrian has made a misleading comparison with the Times' correspondent's experience. The article in the Times describes the response in Umbria that was elicited by a near-emergency situation, which, I believe, is not the same as that outlined in the account posted by Adrain from London.

As for me, I wish everybody everywhere the very best of health, and please do try to keep away from the NHS (or any other Health Authority) as far as possible.

John E. F. O'Reigner, Wirral, England

Here we go, the moneyed London chattering classes on their holidays to Umbria ( the new Tuscany darlings) taking the opportunity to rubbish the whole NHS on the basis of one experience. This is the first of the annual rash of stories about how life is so much better in Provence or Gascony. Life is pretty good too in much of England, especially away from the crowded south east, and I am sick of such negative and cliched tripe filling up our newspapers. If you want to live La Dolce Vita from your Umbrian villa Rosemary then go right ahead.

J.A.W. Clough, REYSSOUZE, France

I agree - to a certain extent. My mother broke her hip in Imola. She was 83 then and was looked after very well. But she was told that she was lucky it happened in Imola and not Naples.

Richard Dawson, Hannover, Germany

My son has been unlucky with his health and has had wonderful treatment on the NHS each and every time.His file at the Chelsea and Westminster hospital is as thick as a bible.The delays have been minimal and when there was an emergency all the NHS stops were pulled out to save him. He has had some major operations and his consultants even commanded help from a Harley Street consultant to get a second opinion. My daughter needs a major operation this autumn and again the delays have been minimal. We have every faith in her consultant and have no doubt that the operation will be a success. Her GP even rings my daughter for a weekly chat and to ask how she is getting on.If we have to fall ill we are quite happy to do so in this country and do not have to travel all the way to Umbria to get excellent medical care.

Adrian, London,