Rich

Citation needed: can you add a link to that XKCD please?

I would expect that most/all European states provide emergency care without asking any questions, it is not unique to the UK/France.

This is really a comment in addition to other answers: if whatever you are using to destroy your documents is slow, you can increase their capacity by only destroying the parts of the documents that have sensitive information on them. I used to sort my documents into piles based upon where on the page the sensitive info was, and then cut that corner out of the pile. Then I would destroy the cut out bits of paper. It meant less shredding. Your mileage may vary of course.