The differences between the NHS and SA government healthcare. The main difference would be the budget allocation or said another way funding.
NHS = £110 billion per year, amount in ZAR = 1.3 trillion South African rands
SA government Health Care Total Expenditure is only at R30 billion rand. Which is £2.4 billion.
Add to that South Africa has a larger population and larger land size.
There are little to no government GPs at the local level. There are walk in clinics but the standard and capabilities are usually less than the British local gp level on the nhs, some of them will also be quite competent. If you get a bad cut or brake a bone, these walk in clinics will patch you up within a reasonable time. They might ask you to pay though, if you have money. You might get a private GP in SA that would accept some kind of government assisted price structure for certain patients.
In the UK the GP level has nhs GP practices, where the premises itself is a government funded facility and the doctors are in most cases NHS only. Some of them might go to another premises on some days and do private work. But I do not think that is common. Very similar to the South African walk in clinics. Just more advanced with a bit more capabilities and facilities. They are also more widespread than private GP. While in South Africa the majority of the local GP are private doctors. I am not quite sure why there are not more private local doctors in the UK. I could only assume that it due to government restrictions or market saturation by the NHS. Private health care because of this is very expensive. Where they can charge £100+ for an appointment and that does not include basic doctors practices. In South Africa for a private gp you can pay say R200 (£20) to see the doctor and that includes basic checks, blood pressure, urine checks, breathing checks etc. In the UK they charge extra for every check in some cases.
I can not say for sure what causes the private health care in the UK to be so expensive. But I assume that it is the large size of the NHS that distorts the market and pushes up the prices due to various factors. I am yet to try private healthcare in the UK, I will wait until I get insurance as a benefit at work.
In SA Government hospitals do exist and survive off funding from Health department and patients can be expected to pay for operations at the hospital. But I think they do offer facilities for no cost to certain individuals. I am not quite sure on the pricing structure between the doctors and the government hospitals. Some of the government hospitals are up to a high standard in relation to the NHS hospitals in the UK. I do not think that the NHS hospitals in the UK have any private facilities, I think they are specifically NHS restricted.The UK nhs hospitals can be quite good and to a high standard. But generally that are complaints about the food quality, sharing rooms, nurse moral and quality of the buildings and other factors.
Someone I know in the UK said it was cheaper to fly to South Africa and have cosmetic surgery on her face than it was to do it privately in the UK. The NHS would not do it.