All European countries have mixtures of Public and Private delivery. The NHS was set up that way.

If you go privately in the UK, you won't usually be treated in tan NHS hospital anymore. Most of the private wings were closed down by Labour during their disastrous reforms of the 1970s that led to the collapse of the NHS, and exploding waiting lists - cause and effect. Took a huge building boom in the 80's from both the NHS and the Private sector to turn those waiting lists around.

Despite its many failing, the NHS is generally ranked higher than Canada for Healthcare delivery