I have a friend that did his ACL skiing in Austria and went through the Austrian public system. In the UK, he'd have had the op fairly quickly, but would have waited up to six months for the necessary physio. In Austria, in hospital on Friday, Op on Monday (it would have been Saturday but there was an issue with his white blood cells), physio started on Thursday. The NHS is good but, as the Yanks say, it ain't all that.