NHS (National Health Service, UK)
Hacker ApprovedPublic health service in Health & fitness
Free national healthcare, with an app that gives patients their records, reorders prescriptions and offers medical information. Critics say records are often incomplete and care varies by area.
Free national healthcare, with an app that gives patients their records, reorders prescriptions and offers medical information. Critics say records are often incomplete and care varies by area.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Free, high-quality care
“The NHS (back then, a quarter century ago, now) was amazing.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?” “I stand by NHS being the only great thing we have left.”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression” “This is one of the great things about the NHS”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “How often do full-body MRIs find cancer?” - Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD”
- Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Over 80% of 16 to 24-year-olds would vote to rejoin the EU”
Patient records available in app
“the NHS app makes all your detailed health history (doctors notes, scan results etc.) available to you as the patient”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Introducing ChatGPT Health” “you can mostly access any previous information but its not always fully populated”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “Government drops plans for mandatory digital ID to work in UK” Trusted, better than US system
“The NHS is much better for most people than what the US has, but I don't think a person on earth would suggest using it as a model”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “AI Job Grief: The Unnamed Psychological Crisis Hitting Tech Workers” “I trust the NHS, older CDC pages, Mayo clinic as platforms”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Google AI Overviews cite YouTube more than any medical site for health queries”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Patient records often incomplete
“you can mostly access any previous information but its not always fully populated”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “Government drops plans for mandatory digital ID to work in UK” “The new NHS app is great, but I can see from my history that > 90% is missing.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “NHS staff refusing to use FDP over Palantir ethical concerns”
What people said
All 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“A common shared resource - the NHS - is exploited by the worst people”
“there is the excellent NHS app”
“Couldn't log in to the NHS app because of an update last week”
“I can reorder prescriptions on the NHS app when I’m running out.”
“I think the NHS is pretty good.”
“I don't think the NHS is perfect, but I also don't think they'd intentionally mistreat someone to make more profit.”
“general medical care under the NHS is a complete postcode lottery”
“The NHS is much better for most people than what the US has, but I don't think a person on earth would suggest using it as a model”
“I especially like the A-Z section where we can find details about a large number of medical conditions”
“The new NHS app is great, but I can see from my history that > 90% is missing.”
“world-class care free of charge”
“This is one of the great things about the NHS”
“I trust the NHS, older CDC pages, Mayo clinic as platforms”
“you can mostly access any previous information but its not always fully populated”
“I stand by NHS being the only great thing we have left.”
“the NHS app makes all your detailed health history (doctors notes, scan results etc.) available to you as the patient”
“The NHS (back then, a quarter century ago, now) was amazing.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.