Health Care System - Essay Example

Health Care System Health is wealth. As the wealth is managed, health also seeks attention to manage it well. A well-managed health means a system is working behind the screen. Since the day the human being wanted to become God, started unearthing the unknown facts of their own physic to address discomforts of the same. As time went on, many more developments took place in the theatre of medical adobe. The paper has the opportunity to discuss matters and the facts regarding the medical system of England of the ages till date. It is also putting the endeavor to foresee the growth and the trend that it going to attain. A health care system is a systematic set up of medical arrangement where the nursing and care of health is being taken care of. Among the different health care system that exist in the world here the paper is focusing on the system of England only. The objectives of health systems as per the recommendations for betterment of performance in health care systems as enshrined in the World Health Report 2000, are as follows: sound health, responsiveness as per the scale of the population and a handsome financial help. A two dimensional method has been devised for the assessment of health care systems. In this process, we have quality, acceptability and efficiency on one hand while equity is the other concern. Thus, it is taking the quantitative descriptors as a parameter to judge the nation’s current status of service provider and the kinds of facility that can be available at the moment of truth. Like any other country England also has got the models in use in the system of health. We may rarely find a completely public health care institution, which would play a minimal role in the hardcore medical section. They serve usually, for a comparatively well to do segment of population in a low profile country with a lower standard of health care. For instance, private clinics for a small, wealthy segment of population in a poor country mainly find their proper operating place, and which becomes logical too. It shows the target segment of the private enterprises, which further reflects the particular demographic composition of that segment of the system. However a large number of nations with most of the systems enlisted under private system provide residual service to the public. (BMC Health Services Research 2005). Among the other important models, the public insurance systems play the important role of a system of social security health care. In this model the state itself insures the workers along with their respective families. Next we may have a publicly funded health care model. In this case, all the country’s residents manage to achieve the insurance of the state. Social health insurance considers the entire or most of the population. Here it is compulsory to insure a member of a sickness insurance company. In general the residents appreciate to be covered to avoid the heat of the medical bill. The insurance is not an investment or tax savings instrument, rather a term policy with sum assured, focusing totally on health. Along with term policies they make the combo effort to maintain a health policy, which even gives the cashless medical facilities in the hospitals tied up with the insurance company. In most parts of the world, where a health care system is run by the government, another private healthcare system is permitted to carry out its operations. One may call this the two tier medical health care system. The scale, fund allocation and the extent of operations are usually quite variable in such private systems of healthcare. But the distribution of this private system has shed some of the load from the shoulder of Government system and has also made a provision for the unseen happenings and necessities where it can contribute to even the pressure. The United Kingdom witnesses four separate National Health Services, which operate through mutual cooperation. These include the National Health Service of England, NHS Scotland, which operate from that region itself, NHS Wales and Health and Social Care carrying out their work from Northern Ireland. These institutions also operate with mutual cooperation in order to form the medical health care world of England. All the permanent residents of the nation get the benefit of free physician and hospital services from these bodies of healthcare. Regular salaries are paid out to the hospital staffs abiding by the negotiated agreements or contracts. On the other hand the first aid or primary care is rendered through dispensaries, which entail independent practices. These dispensaries are also paid through contracts agreed upon nationally according to the number of patients availing their services and the level of complementary services offered in each dispensary. A large number of people in UK get free prescriptions. These prescriptions include those people who do not belong to the working age group and this indicates the one who are too old or too young to work. Those with permanent disabilities and very low income also get the relief benefits. Various health care services charge various prescriptions fees but it is free in Wales. The healthcare services of Scotland charge £5 per head. Here the charges are respectively £6.85 and £7.10 in North Ireland and England. The system raises the funds from the general taxation. People also may access the private health services. These private health care services which function along with the NHS, are duly compensated by private insurance. Health centers or hospitals rendering services for accidents or emergency cases are rare. A proportion of the private ambulances or those which run by charity exist alongside the majority publicly owned ones. When the emergency ward comes in the forefront it becomes absolute to reckon the service and its strength. People with acute illness or injury, are predominantly provided the system of regional government ambulance services, funded by the National Health Service or its regional equivalents NHS Scotland, NHS Wales and Health and Social Care in the North of Ireland. The ambulance services of NHS all over the United Kingdom are legally liable to attend to four categories of request calling for health care (Ambulance Service Definition, 2007). These may include the Emergency calls coming in through the 999 dialing service, when the doctors themselves request for urgent admission, immediate and important transfers within the hospital and other significant and big incidents. Patients may also avail normal transport services through the aid of the ambulance trusts and such services. This would require a commercial tie up with the health care institutions based locally and ven health boards. This tie ups might also be on the basis of government contracts funded directly. This kind of rigidity is lessening the choice on the patient’s side, bringing agitation to the system. Many businesses are seized away from the trusts by the private bodies and the number of such incidents are rising in this region. This takes place through rendering of those services perfetly designed to meet patient’s needs. These emergency services that are provided by the local ambulance services are popularised as trusts in England and Wales. Every service in UK is designed and under a single or more local authorities while the country is categorized into groups of emergency services, almost like the British Police. There are 12 ambulance trusts in England. The boundaries of these trusts general conform to those belonging to the regional offices of the government. (NHS Information on Ambulance Services, 2007). The England’s ambulance services are continuously busy. The number of calls for emergency has increased rapidly during the last twenty years. The government measures the performance of every trust as a part of ‘ORCON’, a system (Nicholl; Coleman; Parry; Turner & Dixon, 1999). The Governments’ objective is to attain 75 percent towards Category “A” calls which threatens life as structured by the computerised AMPDS, but not the Berkshire Division of South Central Ambulance, which follows the CBD system. The time of use of the Criterion Based Dispatch is 8 minutes. The health care systems have introduced several initiatives in order to help reach the targets. This would include Rapid Response Vehicles and Community First Responders. The British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance act as the major voluntary service providers. They are looking after the injuries of people in United Kingdon for many years. They have served actively during both the world wars. The most important activity of these organizations with respect to ambulances refer to providing ambulance cover during events. This process is an extension of their contract for First aid when required. These service providers may help in treatment and transportation to variosu degrees of patients to different hospitals. The categories of patients disposed would however depend on the agreement with the local ambulance trust. This trust is known as the Memorandum of Understanding or MOU. This transportation is not always through ambulance and not delivered for handling more severe incidents like cardiac arrest for which the help of the statutory ambulance service is caleld for. The two organizations have udnertaken the responsibility of providing reserve or support cover to a few of the ambulance trusts. The choice depends on the MOU of the locality. the volunteers of ambulance moves between organizations and in many cases they might be retained as paid staffs of the units. In such cases they are supposed to attend the calls of 999, GP Urgent or PTS calls such that the ambulance trust may attend to these. The organisation receives compensation from the trust, according to the benefit of compensation. People tend to use this service mainly during the time of significant or big incidents in cases when there is a staff crisis or there are random phone calls at frequent intervals. However in certain regions voluntary crews render the trust cover for full time on a voluntary basis. Both these bodies have offerred help to the public at times whenever the workers of unionised NHS ambulance trust restores to walk outs, strieks and other disorders. (This is Cheshire 2006). There is a public health care system and power which renders services towards health care for the nations of Scotland, Wales and North of Ireland. Each nation ahs a separate system for health care. Each of them provides usually a free service as they get their funds through general taxation. However certain minimum differences are now rising among the systems. (BBC News 2008). A private health care medical system which is well integrated and efficient is also functioning. The goevrnments of the respective nations are concerned and assist in the role of suppliers of the public healthcare as well as the quality of service. Various regulatory bodies have been arranged and formed under a General Medical Council spread across UK, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and Royal Colleges run by non governmental bodies (BBC News 2008). Several medical and dental schools are traced all over UK while quite a number of centres to train nurses and staffs belonging to medical related or health care associated professions have been set up. Normally the people know the public health care systems as the NHS across UK. However the National Health Service assist in the medical system of England. As far as the structure of the government is concerned, the Secretary of State for Health is accountable to the Parliament of United Kingdom in operating the Department for Health and in order to serve the NHS - “The NHS is one of the largest cohesive organisations of any type in the world employing over 1.3 million people” (BBC News 2007). Many interactions and exchanges occur among the various levels which the advice towards drugs or treatments. A considerable amount of interactions and cross-flows take place between the various levels. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or NICE, renders advice regarding the feasibility of provision of drugs or treatments by the NHS. Thus, broadly the medical system of England is divided between the privates and publics, where privates have proved to be more flexible and can save the medical system in this volatile condition of society with its ever changing and increasing demands. It is expected that public bodies will provide the traditional support to the privates, helping them to rush for the rescue or to attend. References 1. Ambulance Service Definition (2007). Content Document. Retrieved August 26, 2008 from, http://search.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/kbroker/nhsdirect/nhsdirect/search.lsim?qt= +service+defination&hs=0&sm=0&ha=1054&sc=nhsdirect&mt=0&sb=0&nh=3 2. BBC News (2008). NHS now four different systems, Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7149423.stm 3. BBC News (2008). A four-way split on the NHS, Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7457357.stm 4. BBC News (2007). "NHS workforce falls by 11,000", Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6450303.stm 5. BMC Health Services Research (2005). Systems for grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations II: Pilot study of a new system, Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/5/25 6. NHS Information on Ambulance Services (2007). Introduction. Retrieved August 26, 2008 from, http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=529 7. Nicholl, J.; Coleman, P.; Parry, G.; Turner, J.; Dixon, S., (1999). "Emergency Priority dispatch systems - a new era in the provision of ambulance services in the UK". Pre-hospital Immediate Care 3. 8. This is Cheshire (2006). "Ambulance Staff strike over pay". Retrieved August 26, 2008 from, http://archive.thisischeshire.co.uk/2006/7/20/274227.html Read More