Love-in for health service looms large in British election

London

"OH, you girls are lovely. I wouldn't do your job for all the money in the world," says the elderly orthopaedic patient as two nurses help her off a bedpan. Across the ward, another woman on the mend after a fall says her stay has cured a life-long fear of hospitals.

Given regular headlines about overflowing emergency rooms, horrendous waiting times and cancer drug rationing, Britain's love affair with the National Health Service (NHS) can be perplexing to outsiders.

Yet, the system, launched in 1948, is cherished by the nearly one million people who use it daily and receive free care at the point of use from childbi…