The National Health Services, Disease of Lung Cancer - Essay Example

? The NHS The NHS In the recent years, the number of diabetic and cancer patients has increased dramatically which has augmented the healthcare budget of almost all the world countries. In many cases, these disease are not hereditary and neither consequence of air or water pollution, but because of the appetite choice of patients. High fat meal and drug consumption are the common reasons of these diseases, for which there is no other to blame than the patient (Hardman, 2012). The National Health Services (NHS) is providing free medical treatment to all patients, irrespective of their cause of health disorder. This free treatment policy of the NHS needs to be revised, as this is not only unfair to the taxpayers but is likely to bring economic collapse to the NHS budget with the increasing number of diabetic and cancer patients (Hardman, 2012). Diseases of lungs cancer, diabetes, and metabolic syndromes are the ones which require expensive and prolong medical treatment. Lungs cancer is the most known form of cancer which can cause malfunctioning lungs of patients and could also result in a painful death. Doctors researching on this ailment have clearly stated that 90% of the lung cancer is due o cigarette smoking or tobacco consumption. As the number of active smokers have increased, so is the rate of lung cancer, and there is no other major factor contributing to this disease (Groves, 2012). Report of the American Lung Association on world diseases, reveals that the among all cancer deaths including Breast and Colon cancer, lung cancer has the highest number of deaths (American Lung Association, 2013). In the course of just 50 years, this disease has taken lives of more than 6.5 million people in the UK alone. The major reasons for this is the contribution of globalization, which has hundreds of cigarette, cigar and tobacco manufacturing companies, which has decreased the prices of these drugs and has made it easily accessible to everyone (Cancer Research UK, 2012). The other reason is the lack of government attention on this matter and the failure of introducing applicable and futuristic policies. In the ongoing debates to whether the NHS should change its funding and free treatment policies for lung cancer patients, these facts can provide a firm ground to the argument of restricting those funds. In this regard, Phillip Lee, a GP practitioner, raised the point that if the government kept paying for smokers and diabetic patients, it is in a way encouraging other smokers. He said in the NHS conference (2012) that people are free to consume whatever they wish for, but only at the cost of their own money. If the NHS is not going to cut down the treatment expenses funded to the smoking patients, then there is no way the country will get rid of smoking health disorders (Groves, 2012). It is evident from these facts that the disease of lung cancer is due to the bad appetite choice and smoking habit of the patient. Moreover, these people have harm the health of other people in their surroundings, as anyone who inhales the smoke of cigarette is also affected to some extent. Medical researchers have outlined the fact that passive smokers, the ones who are exposed to cigarette smokes of a smoker, have more chances to develop lung cancer than those who are not (Groves, 2012). This explains that smokers have not only put their lives on risks, but also the lives of many others who come in the vicinity of their smoking zone. One encouraging fact for these smokers is their free treatment from the healthcare budget of the country (Groves, 2012). The purpose of providing free medical treatment to patients is to help those who cannot afford for the medical expense of their diseases or disorders, which have developed naturally or accidently and they are not the ones responsible. Providing this facility to lung cancer patients will not make them realize their act of ignorance and immorality. Therefore, if individuals who are addicted to smoking or tobacco are diagnosed with cancer then they should be asked to pay for their medical treatment (Groves, 2012). This is not being harsh on these patients, but being fair with those who have distanced from smoking and drug consuming habits. In addition to this, it will also make other smokers cautious about their health, when they will learn that they themselves have to bear the cost of their medical treatment (Groves, 2012). Recently NHS imposed a ban on the operation of knee, breast and hips of people who have been an active smoker from the last 6 months. This ban was introduced with definite specifications after testing the Body Mass Index (BMI) and smoking history of the patient (Rojas, 2012). These patients would then have to approach private healthcare centers for their surgery and operation. Dr. Clare Gerada, the head of Royal College, stated that surgeries of breast reduction due to intense smoking and lung cancer are more expensive and takes almost double the time to operate than the normal surgeries (Rojas, 2012). Moreover, patients with high BMI have certain chances of developing health disorders during the treatment stages. For the extra attention and care required for them, they should be operated in private health care centers where they can get special attention without ignoring thousand other patients (Rojas, 2012). Another fact that is needed to bring into the discussion is the population to smoker ratio of the UK. A recent report by the Ash Organization of the UK tells that there has been a significant decrease in the ratio of the total number of smokers in the country to the total population till 2009 (Ash Organization, 2012). However, this ratio is increasing since then, and cigarette smoking is becoming relatively common in teenagers and office working people and cigar smoking in the old aged people. Not only is this, but the ratio of women smokers have also raised considerably over a couple of years and that is another alarming issue for the government. With the increase in population of the country and the number of active smokers, the number of lung cancer casualties is predicted to take the hype in the near future, and if the government will continue to give them free medical treatment and then there is simply no end to this problem (Ash Organization, 2012). The disease of ‘Diabetes’ is also included in this discussion. Tough diabetes is not as lung cancer, but the growing number of deaths due to diabetes is becoming a serious matter of concern for the healthcare organizations (Kamari, 2013). Diabetes is a consequence of multiple factors including high fat consumption, large intake of sugar and carbohydrates or by using a big quantity of antibiotics for different health issues. In UK and many other parts of the world, the appetite of people has greatly changed and now it comprises of more junk and fat food than the organic food items. For this reason, fat reserves in people are growing larger than before and that is the predominant reason of diabetes (Kamari, 2013). According to a recent report published in The Guardian news paper (2012), it was estimated that the number of diabetics in the United Kingdom will almost double in the next 20 years from the present number of 3.8 million to around 6.25 million (Campbell, 2012). This estimation was done on the increasing trend of consuming high ratio cholesterol and fat food items and the rate of diabetic patients on the past 5 years. The NHS management has calculated that currently the total expense of curing the diabetic patients is more than ?9.8bn, which makes 79% of the total budget of the organization (Campbell, 2012). Because of this, there have been situations when operations of other patients had to be delayed due to the arrangement of extra funds. Moreover, if the current rate of increase in diabetic patient continues, than NHS would be incapable of treating other patients with different diseases. It would certainly not be justice to other patients who have taken good care of their diet and exercise but have been struck with uncontrollable diseases due to age, gender or hereditary (Campbell, 2012). Therefore, it is time for the government to reevaluate its healthcare budget, eradicating the sum for those who are responsible for their bad health. In this way, the government will be able to keep a control over the national expenses and reserve more on education and welfare of its citizens (Campbell, 2012). Another disease that can be addressed in this regard is of metabolic syndrome, which is also showing growth in number of patients diagnosed across the globe including the UK. Several causes of this disease have been identified and recognized, and the major cause is obesity. People who have a heavy diet but are not habitual of exercising are likely to gain extra body weight which makes them fat and lethargic (NCBI, 2012). This is different from the heavy weigh of muscular people, as obesity is the weight of fats building in the body. The disease of metabolic syndrome can also produce diseases of high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (NCBI, 2012). For this reason, using regular insulin sensitizers for these patients would not guarantee result and can also misbalance the sugar level of patients with less immunity to insulin sensitizers. Testing the glucose, sugar level, cholesterol and blood pressure of each metabolic patient is necessary to judge the level of the disease, and whether it can be cured by medicines or not (Stolar, 2007). Moreover, the medicines of flutamide and drospirenone which are needed for the treatment of metabolic syndrome are way expensive than the insulin sensitizers. Therefore, if the NHS does not charge the metabolic patients, than it has to keep a big portion of its total budget and resources for these patients (Clinical Trials, 2013). This health disorder again raises the question for NHS that whether it is logical and justice to provide medical treatment to metabolic, diabetic and lung cancer patients free of cost or whether these patients has to bear the cost of their medical treatment? For the answer to this, one should analyze the risks of free treatment and the increasing number of people who are taking their health for granted. Therefore, NHS should make policies to start charging patients in these diseases and run awareness campaigns for other people about both health and financial risk involve in choosing a bad diet or in lack of exercising. Without a proper visualization of risks involve in smoking, high fat consumption and lack of physical exercises, it is not possible to move people towards a better diet plan. Reference List American Lung Association. (2013). Lung Cancer Fact Sheet. Retrieved February 5, 2013, from American Lung Association: http://www.lung.org/lung-disease/lung-cancer/resources/facts-figures/lung-cancer-fact-sheet.html Ash Organization. (2012). Smoking statistics: Who Smokes and How Much. London: Ash Organization. Campbell, D. (2012, April 25). Diabetes threatens to 'bankrupt' NHS within a generation. Retrieved February 1, 2013, from www.guardian.co.uk: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/25/diabetes-treatment-bankrupt-nhs-generation Cancer Research UK. (2012). Smoking. Retrieved February 5, 2013, from Cancer Research UK: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/types/lung/smoking/lung-cancer-and-smoking-statistics Clinical Trials. (2013, February 4). Metabolic Syndrome in PCOS: Precursors and Interventions. Retrieved February 6, 2013, from Clinical Trials: Clinical Trials Groves, J. (2012, November 27). People who eat doughnuts for breakfast should be charged for prescriptions, says Tory MP. Retrieved February 1, 2013, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238780/People-eat-doughnuts-breakfast-charged-prescriptions-says-Tory-MP.html#axzz2Jinh3KJ6 Hardman, I. (2012, November 26). Make people with lifestyle-related illnesses pay for their drugs, says Tory MP. Retrieved February 1, 2013, from www.blogs.spectator.co.uk: http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2012/11/make-people-with-lifestyle-related-illnesses-pay-for-their-drugs-says-tory-mp/ Kamari, Y. (2013). Should All Diabetic Patients Be Treated With a Statin? Retrieved Febraury 6, 2013, from Diabetes Care: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/32/suppl_2/S378.full NCBI. (2012, June 2). Metabolic syndrome. Retrieved February 1, 2013, from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004546/ Rojas, J. (2012, March 7). Obese and smokers denied treatment 'to save money'. Retrieved February 6, 2013, from The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9127486/Obese-and-smokers-denied-treatment-to-save-money.html Stolar, M. (2007). Metabolic syndrome:Controversial But Useful. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine , 199-208. Read More