Nursing in the UK National Health Service and Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences - Dissertation Example

The government organizations namely as National Health service in UK and Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Pakistan is the subject of this dissertation. The part of the study is based in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), which is one of the largest health public organizations in Pakistan. PIMS initially named as the Islamabad Hospital complex (IHC), was opened in 1985 and since then has been expanding its services and equipment to meet the growing health care needs of the human community.

The main issues in the Pakistan health sector includes:(a) poor quality of health services;(b) inadequate coverage of health services; (c) weak institutional and management capacities evidence by poor policy-making, planning and implementation capabilities;(d) inequitable distribution of services;(e) low involvement of users and communities in service planning and delivery;(f) inappropriate budget to service delivery, and (g) difficulties with political will and governance, evidenced by lack of accountability at all levels of the system.

The UK's National Health Service, the world's largest national health system, is a pioneer among national health systems. The creation of the NHS was accomplished by the passage of the National Health Services Act in 1946 and emanated out of long-standing concerns over the health care needs of the population and the goal to coordinate health service delivery in the United Kingdom. This state-owned and operated health system is financed by general taxes and provides health services nearly free of charge to all residents of the UK.

The NHS is organizationally aligned under the Secretary of State for Health, through the Department of Health (DOH) and NHS Management Executive, all of whom are responsible to the British Parliament. General policy making for the NHS is centralized in the Department of Health with layers of management in the national NHS Executive, Regional Executive Offices, area Health Authorities, and local Hospitals and Trusts. General Practitioners (GPs) have contractual relationships with the NHS. The founding principle of the NHS was universal health care for all based on need and irrespective of income or advantage, an arrangement that persists into the present day.

Derived from an egalitarian welfare state ideology and the product of the post World War II socialist school, the NHS is a combination of a public integrated system, wherein government both finances and provides health care.