I was listening to a French program on the radio the other day - and the French Fire/Ambulance service wants to take a leaf out of the Brithish NHS book - they said that most 999 ambulance calls are answered in less than 3 seconds. (The background to this is that some young men called the firemen, and weren't put through before their demise, some 20 minutes later...) So British public service does have some good points ! On a rather more related point, I've had to take French kids to UK hospitals several times, in several different towns and several different parts of the UK. Each time, the hospital has made an effort to find people who spoke French and could reassure the child on what was happening (although this did lead on one memorable occasion to a 16yo boy being treated for a twisted ankle by a gynecologist. He swore me to secrecy as soon as she was out of earshot :-)) Every time (bar one), my sentiment was that the youths in question were being properly and carefully looked after. And the one? A nurse was rather unpleasant, but I think that had more to do with a member of my staff :-(