There are many strengths and weaknesses associated with the United Kingdoms (UK) National Health Service (NHS) as a health care system. The aim of this essay is to analyse what these may be and link the findings to how well they compare to other healthcare systems of developed countries. There are many pros and cons of the NHS which shall be further examined such as its aim to breakdown healthcare inequalities in the UK and costs for patients as well as how resources are used within the system. Using statistics of past surveys, the NHS can be compared to other healthcare systems of developed countries such as the United States, Germany and Canada, all of which shall be reviewed in this essay.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO)
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This fits in with one of the NHS' core principles which is that healthcare should be “based on clinical need, not ability to pay” (NHS England, 2015, online). The NHS is 98.8% tax funded from general taxation and national insurance (The King's Fund, 2016, online). This demonstrates that medical facilities are funded by the public and that healthcare is available to anyone who may need it and is entitled to use it as they have paid for it through their taxes. This also helps to keep patients calm as they usually do not have to worry about incurring any expensive bills after using the NHS. However, while it is mostly a benefit to its patients to not worry about any upfront costs, there is also a downside. This, being that resources are stretched and so certain more expensive treatments may be off limits under the NHS (Gardner, 2015, online). The NHS bases its decisions on an “evidence-based process to ensure the drugs available offer the best clinical benefits”(Gardner, 2015, online). This essentially means that the commissioning board has to take into consideration their budget allowance as well as the number of patients whose quality of life can …show more content…
This crosses over well with another core principle of the NHS: they offer “high-quality care that is safe, effective and focused on patient experience” (NHS England, 2015, online) rather than whatever may benefit the doctors. Patients can be sure that they are being provided the correct treatment and not anything that healthcare professionals have been told to upsell from a business point of
"The NHS is the closest thing the English have to a religion". Yet, as with all religions, informed debate is clouded by myths. The first is that the NHS does not have enough money. Spending on the NHS rose sevenfold between 1949 and 2002 (allowing for inflation) and has continued to rise since then. We can never spend "enough" on the NHS because the more we spend, the more demand there will be for healthcare.
One of the biggest obstacles to successful management of the NHS, and also to any analysis of its current well being, remains the significant lack of any valid information as to what the NHS does, how much it costs and where the money is spent. Indeed, it is perhaps surprising that 'the 1990 changes' were conceived and implemented as fast as they were, given the lack of information that was available in 1988. (Ham, 1996) Attempts were made at the start to ensure that hospitals began from a 'level playing field' so that they were in fair competition with one another, but the sometimes 10 fold differences in the early quoted costs for identical services in different hospitals had as much to do with differing costs of maintaining buildings
11a. American and British Strengths and Weaknesses Big question: How did Americans beat Britain on the battlefield? British Strengths and Weaknesses Clear favorite = Britain History of winning Took on and won against military powers France + Spain British military Well funded Plenty of food Organized and lethal State of the art gear
Some of the key arguments that exist in today’s NHS are how it is organised and managed, and how it is to be funded. Should the government pay for it? Should the taxpayers pay for it? Or should it be privately run?
Firstly,some people endorse the NHS should be abolished or privatized.It would a effective way to reduce the government spending.It can also reduce the government financial pressure,but the government saved the money which will be paid by the most of citizen.People may go bankrupt as personal cost on medical care might increase whitch exceed range they can accept range.For example,this picture shows that
Health care in the UK relies heavily on a public market rather than a private driven market; thus, giving free care to its people. NHS services are free of charge to patients in England unless stated (Department of Health, 2013). Free health care in the UK aim to prevent ill health and
The following paper is based on the differences between two healthcare systems in two different countries, these systems are the Australian healthcare system which is Medicare, and England’s National health system which is known as the NHS.
In today’s world a big topic of discussion is healthcare. Currently, the United States uses Obamacare. Many believe that Obamacare is nice step up from the previous healthcare system but others may disagree and seek a different, better, solution from other countries. Great Britain is one of those other countries and they run their healthcare based on the National Health Service, a completely free healthcare service.
The NHS has been servicing the nation since its inception on 1948 and it is famous the world over. Prior to the NHS we had no public health care if you wanted to see a doctor you had to pay, there was a small provision for the poorest in the Poor Law 1601, which was amended in the 1834 The Poor Law Amendment Act, and then we had to wait till 1942 with the Beveridge report which the NHS is based on. During the last 60yrs the NHS has seen many changes in legislation and policy, some of these
The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the Healthcare system in the United States versus the Healthcare system in the United Kingdom. When comparing the healthcare systems of the two countries the first thing that should be done is determining the differences between a “Good Healthcare System, which is the best attainable average level and a Fair Healthcare System, which is the smallest feasible differences among individuals and groups.” Ibid., p. 27-35 Data also analyzed in Gerard Anderson and
Funding for the NHS is a combination of private and public sources. All legal UK residents have access to the NHS and pay a payroll tax, which equates approximately to 10% of earnings. Although health care provided by the NHS is largely free, there are fees for certain services such as prescriptions, dental and optician services, which are paid by all citizens who are working and make more than minimum wage.
The National health services (NHS) provides a comprehensive healthcare services across the entire nation. It is considered to be UK’s proudest institution, and is envied by many other countries because of its free of cost health delivery to its population. Nevertheless, it is often seen as a ‘political football’ as it affects all of us in some way and hence everyone carry an opinion about it (Cass, 2006). Factors such as government policies, funding, number of service users, taxation etc all make up small parts of this large complex organisation. Therefore, any imbalances within one sector can pose a substantial risk on the overall NHS (Wheeler & Grice, 2000). This essay will discuss whether the NHS aim of reducing the nations need
The United Kingdom utilizes a national health service. This service is government owned and controlled. Most practitioners are employees of the government and hospitals are government run. Taxes provide nearly 80% of the funding for their health program. The remainders of the cost are covered by employee and employer contributions. Most providers and hospitals are public, although there is a small but growing private sector. The citizens of the United Kingdom pay nothing for visits to their physician or hospital stays. They also can choose which providers they want to visit and have “good access to primary care” (Hohman, 2006). The United Kingdom ranked number 18 in overall healthcare (WHO 2000) while spending only 8.4% of its gross domestic product (Kaiser EDU). In a recent poll, 79% of UK citizens “agreed that the NHS provided them with good service” (Health Science Journal, 2009).
The NHS was first launched in 1948. It was created to provide good healthcare services and it was available to everyone. It didn’t matter if you were rich or poor, that was the principle (NHS choices, 2015). With the NHS confronting its greatest difficulties throughout the following decade, there are numerous reasons that the NHS is coming to emergency point. Each test should be tended to and a successful method for adapting and giving better treatment to patients should be involved.
The healthcare system in the United States and Britain are different and many in ways. The purpose of the healthcare system should be to satisfy the needs and preferences of the individual patient who are ill but many countries have a different approach. One of the biggest differences in the two healthcare systems is that in the U.S healthcare is considered private; on the other hand Great Britain has a universal healthcare system. Healthcare is funded and provided for individuals in many