Public Health Services For Nhs England

In this article I am going to describe the key features of public health strategies as they relate to current times in the UK.

Since the Mid Staffordshire trust was investigated by Robert Francis in 2009 regarding the lack of care given to the patients; there has been many changes implemented within the NHS to improve the care and safety of the patients. Some of the recent changes include the whistleblowing policy, implementation of the 6 c’s and the CQC. These were all put into place to try and stop any further problems similar to the Staffordshire scandal in the future. All nurses and midwives must be registered to Professional body in order to practice which could be the NMC. Another way to ensure the safety and best care for the patients is to

Public health England is an organisation used to “protect and improve the nation’s health and wellbeing and reduce equality’s” (Gov.uk) Mainly they collect data based on the health of the nation they then go away and identify answers to

The Care Quality Commission makes sure that hospitals, care homes, dental and GP surgeries, and all other care services in England provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care, and they encourage these services to make improvements.

Bi: the role of CQC; care quality commission, is to set out standards of care that need to be met by all members of staff. Also regular inspections will take place in the health care

Every health professional has a legal obligation to patients. Nurses as part of the health care team share an important role in the quality and safe delivery of patient care. They have the major responsibility for the development, implementation and continuous practice of policies and procedures of an organisation. It is therefore essential that every organization offer unwavering encouragement and resources to support their staff to perform their duty of care in every patient. On the other hand, high incidences of risk in the health care settings have created great concerns for healthcare organizations. Not only they have effects on patients, but also they project threat to the socioeconomic status. For this reason, it is expected that all health care professionals will engage with all elements of risk management to ensure quality and safe patient delivery. This paper will critically discuss three (3) episodes of care from the case study Health Care Complaints Commission [HCCC] v Jarrett [2013] Nursing and Midwifery Professional Standards Committee of New South Wales [NSWNMPSC] 3 in relation to Registered Nurse’s [RN] role as a leader in the health care team, application of clinical risk management [CRM] in health care domains, accountability in relation to clinical governance [CG], quality improvement and change management practices and the importance of continuing professional development in preparation for transition to the role of RN.

There is a long history in delivering health care in the UK which can track back to The Poor Law 1834. The whole health and social care system had shifted to person centred care only since the beginning of last decade after recognising the changing of social structure in the UK and the need of placing service user in to the centre of the service. Therefore several legislations and policies were brought up either by the statutory body or independent organisation to emphasis the importance of person centred care in health and social care setting.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 came into force with crucial principles including new structures and arrangements in health care services to safeguard and strengthen the future of NHS and maintain the modernisation plan. In this Act, many new changes has been made to a number of existing Acts, National Health Services Act (NHS 2006), in order to enable health care system to tackle the existing challenges and also avoid any potential crisis in future. It has also introduced the proper allocation of NHS fund and budget, and improved the integrated care between NHS and social care services to promote patients’ choice in terms of delivering quality care.

The National Health Service (NHS) was planned as a three-tier structure. With the Minister of Health at the top and below were the three tiers designed to interact with each other to suit the needs of the patient. These tiers were voluntary and municipal hospitals supervised by Regional hospital boards, family doctors, dentists, opticians and pharmacists who were self-employed professionals contracted to the NHS to provide services so that patients did not pay directly and local health authorities like community clinics that provided services such as immunisations, maternity care and school medical services controlled by a local authority Medical Health. The NHS in England is undergoing some big changes, most of which took effect on April 1 2013. This included the abolition of primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs), and the introduction of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and Health watch England.

In line with the majority of other developed countries, the United Kingdom (UK) has offered its citizens a universal health care system that is free at the point of service. Funded primarily by taxation, the system is popular and efficient. However, along with most other health care systems around the world, it faces a series of challenges if it is to maintain viability, in the twenty-first century. These issues include; long waiting times, an aging population, funding challenges and the increasing cost of technology.

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).

In July 1998 the strategy for reorganising and modernising the NHS A First Class Service – Quality in the New NHS (Great Britain. Department of Health, 1998) was published. Its aim was to modernise the NHS ensuring delivery of high quality services for all. Quality was to be maintained by setting standards through National Service Frameworks and the forming of National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). These standards were to be monitored by the creation of the Commission for Health Improvement. This was to be an independent statutory body which could scrutinise quality improvements at a local level and address any serious issues identified. Spot checks can be carried out and clinical quality information is made public. Additionally there was also the introduction of an annual national survey of patient and user experience of the NHS. It stated that quality of service should not be dependent on geographic location

This ensures that all organisations under their watch are working to a set of rules and regulations that apply to them. They regulate the care given and inspect institutions to ensure that optimal care that conforms to

It also proposed new systems to enhance patient care, an emphasis upon health and wellbeing rather than illness and the increased devolution of decision making to local organisations. The need for more partnerships and joint working arrangements between Primary Care Trust’s, Local Authorities, independent and voluntary sector organisations, was also emphasised. A new performance framework was also implemented in April of 2005, Standards for Better Health (Department of Health, 2004) which sets out the level of quality all organisations providing NHS care are expected to meet (core standards) or aspire to (development standards) within UK healthcare. The standards to which the document refers are organised within seven domains ranging from safety and governance, to patient focus and public health and are designed to cover the full range and spectrum of healthcare as enshrined in the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003. National Service Frameworks and National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance are integral to this standards based system, whilst The Healthcare Commission has an ongoing and major function to play in the assessment and review of all healthcare organisations.

One of the strengths of the NHS England is residents receive free fully funded medical care that includes all medical treatment, screenings including antenatal, dental, prescriptions, specialist referrals and optometrists (NHS England, 2016). Furthermore, while being free at point of access, the NHS system is an efficient, effective, care, safe, coordinated and patient centred system that was ranked number two worldwide on equity (NHS England, 2016). Free healthcare supports Ham 's (2010) claim that being free at point of entry is a characteristic of a high performing health care system. The benefits of free healthcare were that everyone was able to get the same medical treatment.