A few weeks ago, at the height of the Government's pause for a bit of a think about its NHS reforms, there were a group of Ministers and civil servants from Canada in London to share their experiences of how they improved value for money in their health service during the last recession in the 1990s.

Canada spends 12% of its GDP on its health service. Some people in Canada feel that having a socialised health service that is similar to the NHS is one of the national experiences that define Canada as different from its neighbour to the south. Their system is becoming even more similar to the UK's as our national and provincial Governments of Scotland, England, Wales and the Northern Ireland develop the NHS in their own way. Individual provinces in Canada are also responsible for running their socialised health services, within a set of principles laid down by the Canada Health Act.