Health and Health Care Policy - Essay Example

s preventive care and specialized medical services to patients admitted in hospitals and also for those patients who are being transferred by ambulances. NHS also covers dental and mental care along with rehabilitation. Measures have been adopted to alleviate costs to prevent undue pressure on certain section of the society. Cost of conveyance to and from medical centers for low income people are covered by the government. The first step that a patient can take is to consult a General Physician (GP) who can then prescribe for secondary care services.

General Physicians get paid by salary, capitation and service fees under primary care trusts. Hospitals which are organised by NHS trusts are controlled by the Department of Health (“The UK Health Care System”, 1). In UK there are several bodies set up for the purpose of monitoring and assessing the quality of health care services provided by the public and private providers. This is done by the process of regular assessment of key areas of health care and if necessary recommendations are made for the best practices.

A new framework has been introduced in 2004 to assess the health care service provided by the GPs. They are awarded with points based on how well they organize their practices and how the patients evaluate their surgical experiences. Other things that are considered are extra services provided by the GPs like “child health and maternity” and how chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes are treated. (“The UK Health Care System”, 2) The major function of National Health Service has always been to find means to improve efficiency of health care service.

The UK government has set up Gershon Efficiency Program to improve efficiency of health care service. The activities of the program include “front-line productivity, centralizing procurement to obtain more cost-effective deals, reductions in the costs of both NHS provider and central administration and increasing the efficiency of social care