A couple of years ago, I was overnighting in Birmingham when my FO sliced his eyeball quite seriously with a papercut - at 5.05 on a Friday afternoon. For reasons I won't go too deeply into here, the company emergency medical system went titzup - (new receptionist at the afterhours medical service the company used had never heard of us and wouldn't be told she had to do something).
Long (and it was long!) story short, I ended up putting him into a taxi and taking him to an NHS hospital emergency unit, where, initially, I got the runaround. However, after pointing the possibly very serious implications for a young airline pilot "taking two aspirin 4th hourly and coming back after 9.00 on Monday" - (I had to be quite insistent), I (and he) couldn't fault the treatment he eventually received.
When he was eventually treated and allowed to return to the hotel, (quite a few hours later), what really surprised me was the fact that the hospital staff weren't even remotely interested when I attempted to sort out paying for his treatment. We were both foreigners, our company (which could WELL afford to pay) was foreign, but there was no charge.
Personally, I didn't - and don't - think the British taxpayer should have had to pay for my FO's treatment, and a system that provides for foreigners so generously is at best, too generous, and at worst, far too open to widespread abuse - as ancedotal evidence would seem to suggest it is, and by far too many.
I too was surprised and little mystified that of all British achievements, Mr Boyle chose to dedicate (what was it? 10 minutes?) to the NHS. It seemed to me to be a very "in your face", Left-leaning political statement rather than an entertainment celebrating highlights of British history.
If, as it's been said, it was planned seven years ago, in the Blair/Brown years, that might confirm my suspicion that it was a very Left-leaning poltical statement.
I thought it was out of place for such an occasion, and I suspect 90% of the foreign audience were bemused (and mystified) by at it - to put it mildly.