The National Health Service
Introduction
The NHS, which was launched in 1948, was developed out of a long term reasoning which showed that healthcare should be available to every person regardless of his or her status (Anon. 2015). This idea that healthcare should be available to all without being limited by wealth is the core principles of the institution. The National Health Service is meant to be of national interest, and it remains free to all the United Kingdom’s residents with the exceptions of some services such as optical services, prescriptions, and dental services.
The History of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom
Aneurin Bevan, who was the health secretary on July 5th, 1948, launched the NHS. It was hurled at Park Hospital, the Trafford General Hospital (NHS 2000). It was developed out of the idea that the United Kingdom needed to come up with a platform, which gave good healthcare to all without being biased. This idea showed a welcome change in the UK whereby, for once, dentists, opticians, and pharmacists were brought together and made to serve the same purpose; ensure healthcare to all.
During this period, health care was regulated by the concept that it would be available to all people and it would not be taxed, and thus, people would pay according to their means. This was meant to ensure that no group of people was discriminated, and that the people maintained great health. In 1952, the healthcare enacted charges on prescriptions. A flat rate of £1 charges for dental treatment accompanied the prescription charges. However, these prescriptions were later abolished in 1965. This did not last long as they were reintroduced again in 1968. Their abolishment ensured that these charges did not hinder anyone from getting medical services.
The 1954 marked a transformative year in the National Health Service as they introduced hospital visits for children. Pediatricians Alan Moncriff and Sir James Spence argued that when children are hospitalized, they went through a traumatic process and thus it was important to have their parent and people who care about them around so that they can explain to them that everything will be fine (NHS 2000). Therefore, they introduced daily visiting.
The National Health Service was developed to promote good health and therefore, the institution progressed greatly in its course in 1958 when it introduced diphtheria and polio vaccine. The cases of polio have increased over the years leading to the number of death tolls at about 5,000 (NHS 2000). Therefore, the program meant to ensure that everyone below the age of 15 was immunized and thus it would lead to an instantaneous decrease in the cases of these ailments.
The National Health Service gained control of 2,751 on the United Kingdom’s 3,000 hospitals, which was initially run by local authorities or charities (Campbell 2016). The prime minister at that period, Clement Attlee asked the people to be patient and to give the project time before it can have substantial results. This project improved many people’s life because healthcare was available to all. Initially, people had to pay to stay in the hospital or to visit a doctor, and this affected many families negatively, leading them into debts. Therefore, the idea of National Health Service was welcome to most people, and it ensured that people got health care services without drowning into debts.
The secretary of health, Bevan wanted the NHS to ensure that the best care was offered and not simply act as a savior for the poor (Campbell 2016). The idea was to offer good healthcare services not just to offer services of low quality. The project was supposed to help everyone without depriving a certain group of these services.
The National Health Service Presently
The NHS has developed greatly since it was born in 1948. It was meant to attain better services and equality among all people regardless of the social class, and this has brought about the aspect of universal services whereby the hospitals do not discriminate, and they provide great services to the poor as well as the rich (Carrier & Kendall 2015). They have achieved to maintain their core principles by ensuring that services are provided universally. The National Health Service has often been depicted as the epitome of the kind of care that deals with welfare and universalism (Carrier & Kendall 2015). However, the NHS has not had a smooth run all through the years. In 2012, the government enacted the Health and Social Care Act (HSCA), which abolished the NHS’ foundation, which guarantees universal care (Carrier & Kendall 2015). This meant that the government had withdrawn from being directly responsible for providing care to all citizens and thus giving the responsibility to an autonomous public body.
The NHS is considered the world’s largest employer and one of the most effective institutions over the years (Chang, et al. n.d.). The UK has been ranked among the best regions and most successful regions in many areas including safety and effectiveness of healthcare, a trait attributed by the NHS (Chang, et al. n.d.). The institution may have experienced a lot of challenges, but that has not crippled it as it remains a crucial part of the healthcare sector in the United Kingdom. Both critiques and admirers will feel like the NHS has achieved a lot and failed to achieve on certain fronts. However, more than six decades since it was born, the institution has survived big odds to be still operational and considered an important aspect of the United Kingdom. NHS was developed to improve health and offer health services, and it is still doing that. However, there are still charges that apply, and people may feel like it failed to sustain its core principle.
Current Challenges
The constant reorganization and long waiting times have constantly disrupted NHS. Given, the extent to which it has developed, one can argue that it has managed to overcome all odds and develop over the years. However, it has encountered many challenges and is still having rough patches as it continues to grow. In 2014, it was placed in 10th position out of 11 nations, which were ranked on overall death rates and health outcomes (Chang, et al. n.d.). Sometimes people depend more on numbers because they are unlikely to lie.
One change that threatened what the organization stands for occurred in 2012 when the government enacted the Health and Social Care Act. The NHS England was given the direct responsibility to be directly responsible for NHS. This made the administrative system obsolete (Carrier & Kendall 2015). Clinical Commissioning Groups superseded the Primary Care Trusts as the latter were given the responsibility to offer regional healthcare under NHS England. This system has been a blow to the core principle of universalism in which the institution was born and developed under; Clinical Commissioning Groups’ service providers can set their criteria for selecting patients and eligibility of these patients (Carrier & Kendall 2015). This means that patients can be turned away, an act that shows that NHS has failed to live up to the principle they set and meant to enact all over the years.
The NHS is struggling to hire and keep permanent staff (McKenna 2016). In 2014, there was a fall of about 5.9% between the number of staff that the providers said they needed and that of the posts available (McKenna 2016). These problems also exist in the social care sector, which has seen a rise in vacancy rates from 5.4% to around 7.7% in domiciliary services of care. This shows that the institution is struggling to find new employees or to maintain the employees they have. The overall turnover has also been an issue as an estimated number of workers, around 300,000, leaves their roles at the end of each year, making the overall turnover 25.4% (McKenna 2016). The NHS has been struggling over the past couple of years, and after the UK vote to leave EU, the situation may worsen.
The NHS also encounters other lesser problems such as the issue of an aging population. The NHS was developed to offer healthcare services to all people and to treat people with diseases. Most of the illnesses that the institution set out to curb have been erradicated, and this means that people have a higher life expectancy rate. Also, it implies that people are at a risk of new diseases and they might be probably living with new threatening conditions such as heart diseases, diabetes, and kidney disease among others. This means that the NHS is still facing challenges to keep ongoing treatments and come up with new kind of treatment for the upcoming diseases.
The NHS was initially focused on tackling diseases, but the public has come to expect more from this institution. People want the health care to advise them on healthcare management to social care and mental health. This means that NHS is given charged with more responsibilities than it was initially charged with. It has to deal with the consultation of patients, vaccination programs, processing of medications and appointments, antenatal and maternity care services among others. Therefore, they have more responsibilities than they used to have, which means they have to use more of their services and responsibilities.
One of the most consistent challenges in an organization is the issue of cost. The rising costs of services, current financial crisis, and technological and innovations breakthrough has become a constant challenge to NHS. It is a business concept that when demand rises the cost rises too and thus there have been financial pressures and debts on the part of NHS. There is a growing number of immigrants in the UK, and this serves to show that there will be more people in need of care over the years (McKenna 2016). Therefore, the financial strains are bound to come up over time as the population is only expected to rise.
Conclusion
NHS publishes statistics about their patients every year, to show whether they are working towards their set objectives and goals and also living by their mission statement. In January they admitted 88.4% patients aged 75 years and above a rise from 87.3% admitted in December last year. This shows that the company is still living up to what it set out to do, giving healthcare services to all. The institution is still crucial to the healthcare department in the UK, and it has helped the people over the years. This shows that even if it has been faced with challenges and went through the troubling moment, it still manages to offer people the services that they need and require.
References
Anon., 2015. The history of the NHS in England. [Online]
Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/nhshistory/Pages/the-nhs%20history.aspx. [Accessed 10 April 2017].
Campbell, D., 2016. Nye Bevan’s Dream: A history of the NHS. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/18/nye-bevan-history-of-nhs-national-health-service. [Accessed 10 April 2017].
Carrier, J. & Kendall, I., 2015. Health and the national health service. London: Routledge.
Chang, J., Peysakhovich, F., Wang, W. & Zhu, J., n.d. The UK health care system. [Online]
Available at: http://assets.ce.columbia.edu/pdf/actu/actu-uk.pdf. [Accessed 10 April 2016].
McKenna, H., 2016. Five Big Issues for Health and Social Care After the Brexit Vote. [Online]
Available at: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/articles/brexit-and-nhs. [Accessed 10 April 2017].
NHS, 2000. The NHS Plan: A plan for investment: A plan for reform, London: Crown Copyright.