The Origin of the National Health Service - Case Study Example

The Origins, Structure and Function of the NHS and the major challenges the NHS will face over the next five years. By Institution 26th February 2015 The origin of the National Health Service The National Health Service popularly known as the NHS is an institution in England that provides health care services to the citizens. It was established in 1948 and has turned into a pillar in the social insurance procurement in the nation (Carpenter, Luce & Wooff, 2011). There were a few needs and standards that prompted for the establishment and structuring of the NHS in the nation. The country’s constitution had pledged that every person was entitled to affordable and quality healthcare services. This is based on the premise that the citizens ought to be protected from ill health and other disabilities. For this reason, it was prudent to form a dependable health provider. In the country, not all people can afford to pay for their health care, and for those who can it is not affordable for emergency cases and treatment for terminal diseases. Therefore, the government had to set up this facility to accommodate the less privileged in society (Wills, Evans & Samuel, 2008). Secondly, the hospitals available could not offer quality services to the needy. Moreover, there was no proper health equipment that could be used to diagnose and treat some ailments such as cancer (Lewis & Blount, 2014). The government intervened by creating the National Health Service with the intention of empowering such health care systems. The facility organisation aims at offering universal health services regardless of an individual’s income (Humphrey & Russell, 2005). The ease of access to health care services was important because the country had just come out of the Second World War and had many British casualties that needed care. There was need to re-establish health services to deprive war veteran of injuries inflicted on the battlefield. Therefore, the setting of the principles of the National Health Care was opportune for the subjects. Upon its foundation, the countries well-being has increased since then (Tucker et al., 2009). The general specialist was one of the classifications offered to the subjects. In this category, workers who earned a low pay could access the hospital for free. This services was only provided to the worker with a low pay, but their spouses and children were not covered. In other words, the cover only provided health care to the individual worker who earned the least basic salary (Pierloot & Vancoillie, 2008). People with better salaries or retired are required to pay a substantial amount as fee in acquiring the general practitioner’s services. Doctors facility was an alternative administration under the National Health Service. Hospital care entails the provision of health services such as treatment of inpatient and outpatient. In todays structure, the administration is alluded to in-patient administration (Humber et al., 2013). Before, only a few treatments were considered to require bed rest. These include tuberculosis, ulcers, heart attack and childbearing. Healing facilities under the national wellbeing administrations were obliged to deliberate offer couch administrations. However, patients with insurance cover opted to visit high-cost hospitals in the country or other countries. The local authority was another level of services that was generated by the National Health Service. The local authorities offered bed services to various patients at different rates (Steele, 2011). The local authority gave the social insurance administrations to rates payers. The administrations included maternity administrations and the treatment of irresistible maladies (Pierloot & Vancoillie, 2008). The services was vital as infectious diseases like smallpox could spread fast in urban areas. The bed rest services thus act as a quarantine for these patients. Other considerations that were made to the National Health Services include the state of art mental well-being and aged facility (Woodhead et al., 2011). Mental illness was and is still considered a serious illness. For this reason, specialized hospitals were set to give treatment to the patients for free. Specialized treatment, food, and accommodation were offered to mental, and the physically challenged old patients. The old in the society who did not have dependant were also considered as a special and taken to old age institution (Bache et al., 2012). The National Health Service provided for their needs including food, clothing and addressed their health problem free. Therefore, through this program the senior citizens are free from stigma after counselling and therapeutic care. The structure of the National Health Service Like any other organization, the National Health Service is organized in a way that help it offer quality health services. Aside from the expert authority, the National Health Service is headed by the secretary of state for wellbeing (Glover et al., 2007). The secretary regulates the foundation by offering quality pioneers through the Bureau of wellbeing. The division of wellbeing is fundamental to it establishment and is additionally capable of issuing stores. The division of wellbeing oversees the stores utilization. The Secretary of wellbeing has the obligation of shaping the clinical Commission Board. This board formulates laws and regulations that are considered in running the National Health Service (Wales, 2005). Under the new regulations, the secretary of health regulates and supervises this board with the help of the department of health. The National Health Service Commissioning Board have the responsibility for opening up and supervising the regional offices in various parts of the country. They usually make sure that the regional offices are well equipped with the necessary facilities that enable efficient delivery of quality health care (Wales, 2005). Moreover, regional offices supervise the running of all hospitals in their jurisdiction. They ensure that the hospitals are well funded and that funds given for hospitals are well utilized. After a given period, regional offices compiles a performance appraisal and hand them to the Commission Board. This report usually analyses the challenges faced by the hospitals countrywide (Hemmings, 2011). The board then examines the report and make amendments where necessary and issue recommendations. The board also advises the regional officers on various ways of enhancing service deliveries. The NHS have local offices that work together with the regional offices in reaching out to remote health facilities. The local offices usually work with the commissioning groups in the grassroots to enhance service delivery. The local officers move from hospital to hospital supervising service delivery. The hospital administrators prepare reports on the activities in the hospitals (McLeod, Thain & Wales, 2005). The report is then forwarded to the local officers who in turn give to the regional officers. The regional officers then give the report to the National Health Service Commissioning Board, who later discusses it and informs the secretary of health and the department of health. In order to understand the flow of bureaucracy in the National Health Service operations, the flow chart gives the summary of operations. Figure 1. Structure of the NHS in Britain. From this flow chart, the powers of any group decrease downwards. Therefore, the Clinical Commissioning Groups holds a lesser office while the Secretary of States on health holds the most powerful office as far as the National Health Service is concerned. Functions of the National Health Service The National Health Service embodies different segments as discussed. Every area has its capacities towards the delivery of health awareness to the people. In this section, we will analyse the various functions that the body performs as a whole. One of the functions associated with the National Health Service is to bring equality in the health sector. In communities, different families and individuals are endowed differently (Roaldsen et al., 2014). Some have a huge amount of financial wealth while others do not have. Therefore, the rich and the poor would have different level of health facilities because the wealthy will seek expensive hospitals where the services are presumed better than subsidised institutions. On the other hand, the less privileged will have to do with fewer inexpensive hospitals. In this regards, the National Health Service tend to brings equality by empowering the poor population. The NHS thus offers pooled funds and technological equipment to hospitals so that they can deliver the required health services. The services offered to them would otherwise be very expensive in private and overseas hospitals. Equality is not only measured by wealth, but also by the availability of social services. Some racial groups around the wealthy have over the years been discriminated. The government’s idea of bringing up the National Health Service was to break the gap between races (Herbert, 2013). Since there are more visitors from other countries and people from a diverse background NHS offers the best social program that caters for everyone in the society. Therefore, NHS has unified people while minimised the gap between the rich and the poor. People appreciate one another’s race through this care plan as it serve all. There are little or no issues of racial discrimination in the country. As a result NHS healthcare provision. The nation had come out of the Second World War when the National Health Service was established. The individuals involved in the war were exceptionally exhausted by the war. Moreover, the vast majority of the families were encountering health problem. Consequently, the economy of the nation was threatened, and there was need to take action. The National Health Service, therefore, offered an opportunity to restore a confidence in public health (Fletcher & Marriott, 2014). In this regard, the function of the National Health Service has ensured that the country is healthy and productive. Productivity is essential and has gained a great deal in re-establishing the country as global economic giants. The National Health Service develops the action plan that helps the organization in achieve it missions and visions. The action plan involves mapping areas and collecting statistical data of the population that requires health provision (Fletcher & Marriott, 2014). The mapping is essential as it helps in establishing new units nearer to the people. The establishment helps the patients and the doctors to overcome the challenges faced in emergency cases. Major challenges the National Health Service will face in the next five year. The National Health Service have faced a lot of challenges, and many other barriers are on it way. One of the major challenge confronted by the NHS is monetary difficulties. Like any other organization, financial provision is a challenge. And because the government funds it, NHS limit its operation to the amount budgeted for by the exchequer to meet its demands (Hamilton, 2013). The government usually allocate a certain portion of its wealth to various organization in a balanced way. Therefore, the NHS has outlined it action plan for the next five years but have to adjourn some because of budget constraints. The graph below demonstrates the rising expenditure of the NHS over a period of five decades. Figure 2. The graph of the cost of medical care. Note: The data illustrated above are from the Healthcare and information data; January 28, 2015 (hscic, 2015) The National Health Service requires competence and professional services to run its affairs. The management qualification standards must meet the services required to achieve the goals and the social expectations of NHS. In the next five years, NHS faces a considerable challenge in finding enough qualified professions to run the organization at various levels. Most of the qualified professionals in the country opt to work in other organization and hospitals in other countries in Europe where they are well remunerated. The law does not oblige a person to work in a government institution and, therefore, the private sector is absorbing most of the graduates who could otherwise work for NHS. People expect too much of their government. For example, they require insurance services and better healthcare from NHS. Thus, NHS have to be active and accurate when providing services (Kitson, Athlin, & Conroy, 2014). The organisation has tried to minimise the time taken by patients in the hospital. The society, on the other hand, expects high accuracy of professional regardless of the working environment challenges. In addition, the quality of service is rated by other oversight authority without consideration of financial constraints. There are a lot of pressure on the NHS from the public, and this continue to be a great challenge even in the next five years. The National Health Service is an organization that has gone a great mile in improving the health of the people in the United Kingdom. In England, the quality of life has increased as a result of affordable healthcare. The life expectancy have risen as the institution has worked towards this goal. The achievements are many and more are on the way. The institution needs to be managed and funded well for it to help many more countrymen. References Bache, R, Bhui, K, Dein, S, & Korszun, A 2012, African and Black Caribbean origin cancer survivors: a qualitative study of the narratives of causes, coping and care experiences, Ethnicity & Health, 17, 1/2, pp. 187-201, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 25 February 2015. 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