The National Health Service in Great Britain - Coursework Example

Problems facing National Health Service affiliation Problems facing National Health Service Introduction Great Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) was established in 1948 with the aim of creating health system that was going to serve all citizens in the United Kingdom regardless of their ability to pay for the services they receive. The idea of NHS was adopted from the Biveridge report of 1945. The following objectives were vital to the success of this program included (i) equal access to care by all citizens, (ii) provision of both preventive and curative services, (iii) provision of services to all patients at no cost (Berry 2004, p.9). The National Health Service is primarily getting its funds from the central taxation. The system helps in providing a variety of health services that is comprehensive. The vast majority of the services are seen to be free at the point of being used by everyone who is considered a legal resident in the United Kingdom. All the services are being provided as NHS, although the NHS of England is the only one that is officially referred to “The National Health Service” (Choices 2013, p.34). The National Health Service system is the largest health care system that is funded by the public in the world. Through this system, about 1.7 million people who are mostly health professionals are employed across the system. Today, NHS is facing problems that may be a hindrance to its service provision. Most of the problems facing the system could not be anticipated during its inception. These problems include economic meltdown, increase in the aging population, rapid changes in medical technological equipment’s, increase in demand of healthcare services by the growing population, and staff shortages among others. Problems facing National Health Service The hospitals across the United Kingdom are facing increasing challenges and the recent reports from the media indicate worse scenarios. From the new reports, the use of the latest technology was highlighted showing the advantages of using robots in surgery in addition to having innovative eye surgery in planting miniature cameras to help cure blindness (Nutley & Davies 2001, pp.35–42). The second and more topical area touched in the report was on the rate of infection and multiple resistances staphylococcal Aureus. These are among many other challenges that are facing the United Kingdom hospitals and thus National Health Service deliverance. The problems facing NHS today that were not anticipated during its inception are grouped as follows: Economic meltdown The problem of economic meltdown was not anticipated throughout the world. This has led to the retrenchment of more workforces to ease pressure on the budget of the hospital. With few working staffs the hospitals has been getting pressure from the increasing population, lack of enough medication and modern equipment to match the demands of the services. Improving quality of care In every hospital, the management is striving hard to improve the quality of health services being delivered. Despite this effort, the results from the reports are indicating great variations in the provision of care throughout the country. This is indicated by the long waiting lists, high rates of infections, uneven qualities seen in the operating theatres, errors in medication and issues regarding safety. The sheer cost incurred when all the issues affecting the quality of care are combined would be huge. The government had given out an estimate of about two hundred to four hundred million sterling pounds as the direct costs being incurred in hospitals due to errors in medication. However, better-informed patients and economic pressures are the better drivers to resolving this issue, and they are tied to the future reimbursement for the national health services in hospitals (Wainwright & Waring 2000, pp.241–259). Increasing demand for health care Increasing age in the United Kingdom has been the reason the demand of health care services in the country has been increasing. In 1948, during the inception of the National Health Service system the population of the citizens who were below sixty-five years of age and above was eleven percent. It was unprecedented that this population was to increase at a high rate (NHS Choices 2012). In 2006, the population grew to sixteen percent that is approximately 9.7 million people above 65 years. This rate is increasing year after year, and there is no turning back. Therefore, different hospitals are required to adjust in future to cope with the increasing population and reorganize themselves around a narrow range of clinical specialties, get patients out of beds quickly, differentiate themselves on services being delivered and quality of the service and all these are straining the national health system (Asthana et al. 2012, pp.1–17). New expensive but effective technology Medical technology appears to be changing at a relatively faster rate with improving technological sophistication; this includes medical equipment’s and new drugs entering the market on a regular basis. The robotic equipment’s have cost the hospitals huge amount of money, and this does not feature surgeon training and other instruments that are set in the theatre. The advent of X-rays machines and several other powerful MRI scanners have proved to be too costly. Every other time, there are new equipment’s and drugs in the market that the national health service hospitals cannot afford and keep pace with hence fail to purchase. In cases of new drugs in the market, the hospitals will refuse to prescribe them either or limit their use (NHS 2013). Technologies come with the benefit, with treatment benefit comes better clinical outcome of patients. New technologies were not anticipated during the formation of national health services and its adoption; hence, it poses heavy financial burden to the hospitals. For hospitals to avoid implementing the use of technology in delivering services, their services will only prove to try to postpone the inevitable, and this might end up damaging the reputation of the hospital and the entire NHS system. Therefore, hospitals are striving to increase their surplus so that they can be able to meet the high cost of such purchases (Ham et al. 2011, pp.1–19). Shortages of staff Recently, to cope with the growing financial deficits, the National Health Service system has experience reduction in several of its workforces including nurses and other clinical staffs. However, the reports indicate that National Health Service hospitals are expecting a further downfall of more health workers. Currently, shortages of staffs have been reported in diagnostic modalities and other medical physicists who are responsible for planning cancer radiation treatment (Liddell et al. 2008, p.45). This requires a national strategy in all the hospitals. Hospitals can also go a long way and try to reduce these shortages in its working staffs by bringing in better packages of recruitment, improving the climate of the working environment, using working hours that are flexible and taking advantage of new technology in saving and freeing up time. Staff shortage is a serious concern in National Health Service hospitals that needs a concentrated effort. Without that, the shortage will end up consuming very huge financial resources in the hospitals (Department of Health 2010, p.61). Finance The biggest challenge facing National Health Service hospitals is a lack of enough finance because the rest of the other challenges will ultimately pile pressure on the hospitals budgets. Financial issues have also been compounded by the global economic problems experienced throughout the world. The NHS hospitals are facing pressure on the income that they generate and have to get used to managing their resource effectively to avoid any wastage or overuse. With the government facing uncertain hard times in the economy, the tax revenues that the government gets can only be channeled in one direction and this result in a lot of pressure being put in hospitals. The hospitals will be forced to manage their staffs, recruit as well as retain their staffs so that they can ease pressure exerted on them (Choices 2013, p.34). Without the right financial budget, the hospitals cannot run its daily service deliverance efficiently. Hence, due to the hard economic times experience globally, the government contribution to the health sector diminished significantly. When the hospitals lack enough financial resources, it cannot afford to keep itself up to date with changes in medical technologies and the drugs it needs to keep in stock to meet its huge consumption from the patients (Berry 2004, p.9). References Asthana, S., Gibson, A. & Halliday, J., 2012. The medicalisation of health inequalities and the English NHS: the role of resource allocation. Health Economics, Policy and Law, pp.1–17. Berry, M., 2004. Facing NHS problems head-on. Personnel Today, p.9. Choices, N., 2013. About the National Health Service (NHS) in England - NHS Choices. About the National Health Service (NHS) in England - NHS Choices, p.34. Department of Health, 2010. Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS (White Paper). Stationery Office, p.61. Ham, C. et al., 2011. Where next for the NHS reforms? The case for integrated care. The King’s Fund, pp.1–19. Liddell, A., Adshead, S. & Burgess, E., 2008. Technology in the NHS Transforming the patient ’ s experience of care. The King’s Fund, p.45. NHS, 2013. The principles and values of the NHS in England - NHS Choices. NHS Direct. NHS Choices, 2012. NHS history timeline - Health tools - NHS Choices. www.nhs.uk. Nutley, S.M. & Davies, H.T.O., 2001. Developing organizational learning in the NHS. Medical Education, 35, pp.35–42. Wainwright , D. & Waring , Teresa , 2000. The information management and technology strategy of the UK National Health Service – Determining progress in the NHS acute hospital sector. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 13, pp.241–259.  Read More