6.04.2015 1.2. Background Healthcare system across different countries has been affected by NPM reforms. Decentralisation as one of the main reforms under the NPM umbrella has started in different countries from different positions (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011, p. 102). For example, central government in the UK has praised the virtues of decentralisation, but in the early 1980s the UK was relatively a centralised country. Administrative decentralisation has been the preferred form. Few new powers have been given to local governments in the UK. In this case decentralisation has transferred authority to a range of specialised administrative bodies. However, the UK did experience a very significant act of political decentralisation when the Blair administration created elected assemblies for Scotland and Wales. When Cameron became prime minister in 2010 he strongly promoted the idea of a ‘big society’ rather than a ‘big government’ (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). The precise implication of this were far from clear, but the general direction seemed to be towards decentralising services and seeking to enlist both commercial companies and civil society association to take over, or at least share in, activities previously performed by public authorities(p.315). In the NHS, since its formation one of the major debates has been the tension between a national and centralized NHS and a local and decentralized service (Peckham et al 2008). Current debates about the nature and
After the serious shortcomings within the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust came to light, The Francis Report (Francis, 2013) investigated how the conditions of inexcusable care could prevail within the trust. The Francis Report proposed several extensive changes that could improve the National Health Service (NHS). Garner (2014) informs that these changes include that leaders need to be effective and accountable, staff should be empowered to work in partnership, each trust should aim to improve innovation and quality, whilst putting the patient first. The Department of Health (DH) reflected on the findings and in response to The Francis
described as the worst care that the NHS has seen for many years, and became an issue of public concern when it was
Frontline employee’s are best placed to understand the needs of patients, and have the skills and knowledge to develop innovative services to meet those needs. We need to devolve power in the NHS so that frontline staff has a greater say in how services are delivered and resources are allocated. Each of the health care professionals holds a level of power according to their profession.
The National Health System began in 1948 with the aim to provide free health care for the English thus removing health access inequities. This essay considers two strengths of the NHS, being free health and locally responsive health care and two weaknesses being the financial burden and unprecedented pressure on health care resources.
The NHS came around in July 5, 1948. The Health Minister Aneurin (also known as Nye) Bevan purely nationalised the existing system across the UK. The groundbreaking change was to make all services freely available to everyone. Half of Scotland’s landmass was already covered by a state-funded health system serving the entire community and directly run from Edinburgh. Additionally, the war years had seen a state-funded hospital building programme in Scotland on a scale unknown in Europe. This was combined into the new NHS. Scotland also had its own individual medical tradition, this is centred on its medical schools rather than private practice. The legislation that empowered the UK to have the NHS is National Health Service Act (1948), this despite opposition from doctors, who maintained on the right to continue treating some patients privately. The NHS ensured that Doctors, hospital, dentists, opticians, ambulances, midwives and health visitors were available, free to everybody. This Reason why we have health services is because it developments a view that health care was a right, not something given unreliably by charity, also two-party’s agreement that the existing services were in a mess and had to be sorted out, it stopped financial difficulties for the voluntary hospitals and After the second world war it ensured the creation of an emergency medical service as part of the war effort
This essay will examine how the development of the Welfare State and the NHS changed the lives of the people of Britain since its introduction in 1948. To enable me to do so, I will analyse and evaluate the key relevant aspects that happened during that period.
Starting with the organizational structure of the NHS, it is basically an umbrella organization that comprises of four regional branches, in particular, NHS (England), NHS Scotland, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland and NHS Wales. The financing for all these institutions comes from a universal source, particularly the tax-payer money of residents of UK, although they operate to an extent as self-governing institutions. The treasury allocates money to the department of Health, which in turn allocates money to NHS England (Understanding the new NHS). In other words, the top executives of these four institutions take decisions independently for day to day operations although they abide by broader governing directives applicable to the UK region as a whole. Governance is an important aspect of the operating of the NHS, for without it exploitation by private vested interests is likely to happen. (National Health Service (NHS): A study of its Structure, Funding and Regulation, Strengths and Weaknesses, n.d.)
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 NHS has grown to become the world’s largest publicly funded health service system since 1948(Nhs.uk, 2015).There are many issues and disputes in NHS. Nowadays,some people believe that the NHS should be abolished or privatized,because it can solve many issues with NHS.This essay agree that the NHS should not be abolished or privatized.
It has been widely accepted that rationing of the National Health Service (NHS) is paramount to maintaining and balancing public resources. In a utopian world it would be possible to provide every patient with every medical treatment that they would require, however this is not possible and therefore rationing has to be applied by local health authorities. Simply, there are not enough resources and medical staff available to keep up with the ever evolving demands of the public, and once more, these medical resources can’t at times tend to the needs of the medical advancements made every day. Some equipment and medicines are extremely costly and the NHS struggles to balance public budgets in the face of such advancements. One survey of a primary care trust in the NHS found that the panel that made that decision about funding new treatments was faced with applications that would have
brought about major change in how hospital and GP services were managed. The NHS nationalised health services but local councils still ran a variety of clinics and services for children. Soon after prescription charges were introduced. The NHS helped to organise hospital services so that areas that were lacking could be identified.
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.
Socio-cultural - The Office for National Statistics (ONS) state that, since 1964, the population of the UK has grown by over ten million (about half of this growth has occurred since 2001), in addition the average age of a UK citizen has increased by four years. This means that not only does NHS
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.