Socialized medicine

The thrill of socialized medicine. From the Guardian:

The Department of Health said that the total waiting list stood at 813,700 at the end of July - the lowest since data was first collected in the current way in September 1988.

This is a drop of 10,200 since June, a fall of 59,900 since July last year and a decrease of 344,000 since March 1997.

The figures also showed that only 15 patients were waiting longer than nine months for their operation, with two of these waiting more than a year.

[emphasis mine] You can bet if this story referred to medicine in the U.S. that some human rights group would demand that this was a violation of some right.