There’s a scene in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie where our heroes need to navigate an unseemly space bureaucracy. Our protagonist, Londoner Arthur Dent, jumps at the occasion. “I’m British, I know how to queue,” he jokes.

But there’s no joking about the long lines in the National Health Service (NHS), the U.K’.s agency overseeing its socialized medicine programs. The lines are so long they’re killing people.

“8 million people in the United Kingdom are waiting for their care, with 40 percent waiting for more than 18 weeks,” reports The Hill. “An incredible 14,000 people died just last year while waiting for care in England’s emergency rooms.”

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