Excess deaths are soaring as health-care systems wobble

In1516 thomas morenhs described the ideal health-care system. “These hospitals are well supplied with all types of medical equipment and the nurses are sympathetic,” the philosopher wrote in “Utopia”. “Though nobody’s forced to go there, practically everyone would rather be ill in hospitals than at home.”Five centuries later, those who prefer to be ill in hospital would struggle to make it past the lobby. People often lament the shortcomings of . They tend to ignore the extent to which pressure is visible across the rich world. Britain’s National Health Service () is in a winter crisis like none before, with people who have heart attacks waiting 90 minutes for an ambulance. In Canada things are so bad that a children’s hospital called in the Red Cross. Even in Switzerland, whose health care is often admired, the system is under enormous stress.