You've had a good experience, many others haven't. I personally had two family members die from NHS incompetence, and no compensation. There are horror stories like mine every day. I'd much rather have the US system, with all its flaws.
My mother's second husband's stomach trouble was misdiagnosed. Because of the long waiting times to see a specialist, the cancer was too far gone by the time they found out what it was, and he died when he was 50. My wife's sister was taken to hospital with a gallbladder infection. Despite being extremely weak, the staff let her walk and she fell. She broke her pelvis, but they missed it. Despite being in severe pain and being very weak that they let her walk again, and she fell again and her condition deteriorated. She died a few days later, aged 36. Their incompetence killed her. The case was referred to the Ombudsman and the family got an apology, but no compensation for their mistakes. I do understand that horror stories also occur in the U.S. but the faster time to treatment, and better testing, would have saved my mother's husband, and the fear of lawsuits would have saved my wife's sister. As I said above, there are horror stories like these in the newspapers every day. Many, many more cases like ours are simply not reported.
You can sue them but it is a long process and you won't get U.S.-style amounts for payouts. That's if you can get that far. The staff cover for each other and use processes like the Ombudsman to delay and obfuscate. Also, the UK is not a litigious culture and my mother and other family members simply didn't want to go through more trouble.
