Overview and Industrial Classifications of National Health Service - Case Study Example

2. National Health Service (NHS) 1. Overview The National Health Service (NHS) is a publicly funded healthcare system formed of four healthcare systems in the countries of the UK. This publicly owned healthcare system is funded primarily through central taxation. NHS provides a set of comprehensive health service packages, majority of which are freely available to the legal residents of the UK. All these four healthcare systems are entirely independent and they operate under different managements, laws, and political authorities. These individual systems are National Health Service (England), Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland (HSCNI), NHS Scotland, and NHS Wales. Although the England’s NHS is officially termed as the ‘National Health Service’, all the four health services are often referred to as NHS. On the basis of the legislation passed in 1946, 1947, and 1948, all the four health services commenced its operations in 1948. NHS Wales and NHS England had been operating under the same structure until powers over the NHS Wales were transferred to the Secretary of State for Wales in 1969, and the responsibility of this health organisation was transferred to the Welsh government under devolution in 1999 (National Health Service History, n.d.). The Beveridge Report of 1942 recommended the government to develop “comprehensive health and rehabilitation services for prevention and cure of diseases”. In response to this recommendation, the government implemented such health rehabilitation services across the United Kingdom by 1948. Although those services were at absolutely free of cost initially, the UK government soon introduced some prescription charges so as to fight growing economic difficulties. The UK parliament established these new health services through two Acts, National Health Service Act 1946, and National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947. Each of these for NHSs is funded primarily from general taxation together with small percent of National Insurance contributions. Some other less important source of income include payment from overseas patients and their insurers, costs of prescriptions, and dental treatment, telephone services, and hospital car parking. In addition, NHS Trusts are permitted to earn income from treating patients privately and England’s NHS Trusts generate 0.6% of the total revenues in this way (Harker, 2012). Although UK parliament is the authoritative body to determine the overall budget available to England NHS, local governments are also allowed to decide how much to spend on local needs. 2. Industrial classifications As discussed already, National Health Service is the England’s publicly owned healthcare system and it is the world’s largest and oldest single-payer health system. Since the organisation provides most of the health services at absolutely free costs, all British people can rely on NHS to meet their healthcare needs. Although now NHS charges for some services like dental care, eye tests, and prescriptions, these charges are still lower than the prices charged by private health care providers for equivalent services. The organisation delivers a wide variety of health services including primary case, long-term care, in-patient care, dentistry, and ophthalmology. Over the past several years, NHS increasingly began to use the private health sector in order to increase its capacity. The Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland or simply HSC is responsible for providing health and social care services in the Northern Ireland. The Health Department is responsible for funding the operations of the HSC, and the funding activities are managed by the Northern Ireland Executive. The major difference between HSC and other three NHSs is that the former offers not only heath services but also social care. Here local councils are obliged to deliver social services. Similarly, NHS Scotland is the publicly owned healthcare organisation in Scotland, and it is funded by the Health and Social Care Directorates of the Scottish government. NHS Scotland’s operating budget represented £11.35 billion in 2010-11, funding the employment of nearly 140,000 health workers, including over 47,500 nurses, more than 3,800 consultants, midwives, and health visitors. In addition, this facility also used the services of more 12,000 doctors, family practitioners, and other health professionals including dentists, opticians, and community pharmacists (Show.scot.nhs.uk, n.d.). NHS Wales, the publicly funded healthcare institution in Wales, is responsible for improving the overall health status of the Wales. The NHS Wales’ major health services including primary care, secondary care, emergency care, and tertiary care services. Advanced health services like plastics and cardiac surgery are provided by specialist hospitals and GPs operate a network of community hospitals. Health services like dentistry, pharmacies, and sexual health services are also funded by NHS Wales. 3. Aims and objectives The NHS has been striving to benefit UK citizens to obtain world’s best health services at absolutely free of cost as and when required. The NHS was created to deliver quality health services to all people regardless of their financial background. According to the organisation’s core principles; 1. It must meet the needs of everyone, 2. It must be free at the point of delivery, and 3. It must be based on clinical need, but not the ability to pay (Source: Nhs.uk. n.d). The most fascinating feature of the NHS is that it does not discriminate clients on the basis of gender, race, religion, politics, sexual orientation, or civil partnership status. Such a system greatly assists the organisation to prevent the spread of epidemic and infectious diseases effectively, and to contribute to the overall health improvement of the region. ‘Highest standards of excellence and professionalism’ is another major objective of the organisation because it is inevitable to contribute toward quality care as well as patient safety (Nhs.uk. n.d). The organisation always tries its best to ensure the involvement of patients, their family members, and their cares in taking treatment decisions. NHS welcomes feedbacks from patients, staff, and public to improve its services constantly. It also closely works with other organisations, interest groups, and local communities to accomplish its long term objectives. The organisation is also committed to emphasise fair and sustainable use of limited resources and to give best value to taxpayers’ money. Finally, NHS takes great efforts to make its operations transparent and to be in the best interests of the whole country. References Harker, R. 2012. NHS funding and expenditure. Library, House of Commons. Nhs.uk. n.d.. The principles and values of the NHS in England - NHS Choices. [online] Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/about/Pages/nhscoreprinciples.aspx [Accessed: 12 Feb 2014]. National Health Service History. Chapter 6. 1998 - 2007 Labour's Decade. [online] Available at: http://www.nhshistory.net/chapter_6.html [Accessed: 12 Feb 2014]. Show.scot.nhs.uk. n.d. Putting Scotland's Health On the Web. [online] Available at: http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/introduction.aspx [Accessed: 12 Feb 2014]. Read More