History of the National Health Service
The purpose of this essay is to outline the history of the National
Health Service and why it was introduced into the everyday lives of
the British people.
As the NHS is a major factor of the welfare given to the people of
Britain, we must look at the early years of the Welfare laws and acts
passed down through the centuries, which eventually lead to the
creation of the NHS. The first welfare reforms were known as the 'Poor
Laws', which had their beginnings in the Elizabethan era. In 1601 the
first Poor Laws were passed which basically put each parish in charge
of doling out relief to the parish poor. In theory these new laws
should have been sufficient for the people of the time, however in
practice these laws were not regulated or monitored and if a poor
person moved, they were not entitled to any relief in their new
parish. These laws remained largely unchanged until the new Poor Law
Amendment acts of 1834, which was only brought in after much
campaigning from around the land. This new law allowed a person to
accept a place into a 'House', commonly known as the Work House.
Although the poor person was given shelter and food in return for a
days work, the conditions endured were often worse than what was
experienced by the recipient before entering this 'charitable'
institution, the reason for this was to put off any vagabonds who were
too lazy to work an honest days work thus ensuring only the needy and
desperate would apply for help. (Joanne de Pennington-Beneath the
Surface: A Country of Two Nations. / Frank Field-The Welfare
State-Never Ending Reform. These two sources are from www.bb...
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...APHY
Leathard Audrey. (1991) Health Care provision: past, present and
future, Bury St Edmunds England
Powell Martin A. (1997) Evaluating the National Health Service,
Buckingham England
Briggs Asa. (08/04/03) Reforming Acts
www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/protest_reform/reforming_actsprint
Professor Eric Evans. (08/04/03) Laissez-Faire and the Victorians
www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/welfare/laissezfaire_print.html
Frank Field-The Welfare State-Never Ending Reform
www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/welfare//field_01.shtml
Joanne de Pennington-Beneath the Surface: A Country of Two Nations.
www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/welfare/bsurface_print.html
The NHS explained (08/04/03) www.nhs.uk/thenhsexplained/history
Welcome to the NHS (08/04/03) www.nhs.uk/thenhsexplained/history
The NHS began in 1948 as a result of an act of Parliament in 1946, under the guidance of Aneurin Bevan, then a Minister of the incumbent Labour Government, and in response to the Beveridge Report on The Welfare State of 1942. Most hospitals in the UK had previously been operated as non-profit making concerns. About two-thirds of them had been run by Local Authorities (the bodies also responsible for local Fire Services, Schools, Roads etc), with about one third of them run independently as Voluntary Hospitals. With the NHS act, these were all compulsorily acquired and subsequently administered by the State, and all treatments became universally available at no cost at the point of provision, the whole being centrally funded by taxation. From 1948 onwards all hospital doctors, hospital nurses and all other hospital staff became salaried employees of the State.
Tommy Douglas was a Canadian social- democratic politician, who became the premier of Saskatchewan in 1944. Tommy Douglas believed that it was his responsibility as premier to improve the lives of ordinary people. In fact, he had experienced firsthand people dying, because they did not have enough money for the treatment they needed. It was from that day he said “If I ever had the power I would, if it were humanly possible, see that the financial barrier between those who need health services and those who have health services was forever removed.” So, when he became premier he enacted the first Medicare plan in Saskatchewan, which in 1972 was adopted in all provinces in Canada. The universal health care system has many advantages and should be adopted by other countries as well. This system would decrease the world’s death rate, there are also many people out there who cannot afford health care and it would be easier with universal health care to have everyone under one system.
“Health is the state of complete physical, mental, social and intellectual well-beings not merely an absence of disease”(WHO,1998).Good health is essential in life as people’s career will be affected if they fall ill.. In the developed countries like Australia, People who are not involved in the healthy lifestyle are suffering from a range of health disorders like overweight, high blood pressure, obese, heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, kidney problems, liver disorders and so many. To overcome these health issues Australian government introduced health care system. This essay will firstly, discuss the Australian health care system and secondly, compare Australia with other countries around the world in relation to different consideration on health.
Many pivotal events over the last century have brought our healthcare system to where it is today. Some were indirect, such as World War II (and how it led to direct events such as medical advances that shifted focus from critical care and managing contagion to preventive medicine and health insurance as an employee benefit) and the internet (which has provided a wealth of tools and resources that were once only available to healthcare providers and has served to foster technological advancements such as Electronic Health Records and telemedicine). Others were targeted interventions, such as the Hill-Burton Act, which was enacted in 1946 and provided infrastructure dollars to healthcare facilities that agreed to provide a significant volume of free or reduced cost services to those with limited ability to pay (HRSA, 2014). Perhaps the most influential targeted event was the passage of Medicare and Medicaid programs, which was the point at which the government became the administrator for insurance programs for the poor, creating a system that would continuously grow and impact service delivery through regulatory control.
olds who now had to go to school because the government had made a law
The NHS was then finalised during 1948, the main role of the NHS was to reduce health inequalities throughout Britain, so that everyone could be treated the same way, whatever their finance stability, job status and location. They believed that this programme should have reduced inequalities throughout Britain. It was created by Aneurin Bevan and Edwin Chadwick but it was successful until the Prime Minister at the time who was Margaret Thatcher accepted the Bill through Parliament. The NHS included the Public Health Acts such as maternal and child welfare, availability for beds in hospitals and General Doctors in local areas. The NHS also included things such as Vaccinations and Immunisations and social work skills such as home helps and also
The United Kingdom has had the centralized health care system for many years and they spend half the costs in health care than the United States, they are organized and have many resources available to their patients to help with their healthcare system. The Obama administration has the right idea for healthcare, but the cumbersome process to transition to this type of healthcare is going to take time. If the United States could be able to organize their foundation in such a matter as the United Kingdom has and find a way to shift costs to general taxation, then they could focus on organizing patients and healthcare providers and services to start pulling towards the end goal.
The supporters argue with the data that US is in the top position in per capita spending for health. Most of the individuals are not subsidized whic...
of the population is responsible for 80% of the total health care costs, and much more. It does
In this essay I will analyse the origins of Community Care and what benefits emerged when the NHS Community Care Act 1990 was established. Later on, I will explain and critically evaluate the effects of privatisation in social care and health.
National health systems are assessed by the extent to which expenditure and actions in public health and medical care contributes to the crucial social goals of improving health, increasing access to quality healthcare, reducing health disparities, protecting citizens from penury due to medical e...
The NHS was founded on similar principles as Canada- universal, free to a point, equitable and paid by central funding (Grosios et al, 2010). Over the years, the NHS has seen numerous organizational and political changes, but still remains universal and offers care to people who need it and are not able to pay for it. The NHS is funded by national insurance contributions and taxes. The healthcare policy and healthcare delivery is a responsibility of the central government in England, whereas in Wales, Scotland and Northern Island it is the responsibility of the local governments. In the UK, the NHS is composed of two major sections- one which deals with policy, strategy and management and other section that deals with medical care; this department is further subdivided into community care, pharmacy, dentistry and general medical practice. In Britain there are many barriers in seeking specialty care; one has to see a general practitioner first, who is a gate keeper and decides on where and who gets specialty care. It can often take years to bypass this gatekeeper because there are very few specialists in the country. In the past two decades, there has been a major shift in funding moving away from central government to local counties. The UK healthcare center is facing cutbacks in funding and complaints of long waits to see surgeons and specialists is common.
...also be able to pay and reward doctors and nurses who treat people like patients and not numbers. As we have clearly seen, medicine for profit is not solving the problems of the healthcare system and many people are going bankrupt, dying, and choosing suicide over costly bills. Maybe we should learn from all of these situations and numbers and see that like the UK did, we should be looking at ways to expand our basic human rights to include healthcare.
Similarly, diverting the money from the monarchy to statutory areas such as health would greatly reduce the cuts made in hospitals across the UK. “More than 5,400 nursing posts have been cut since the coalition came to power, as NHS trusts tighten budgets in the wake of an unprecedented slowdown in health spending.” (The Independent, 2013). Money invested into the health sector would help to reduce waiting lists, increase the number of beds currently available resulting in better care for sick patients and would even save lives, as the money would be available to facilitate medical research.
Nursing is more than merely a job, an occupation, or a career; it is a vocation, a calling, a frame of mind and heart. As a nurse, one must value the general good of others over his own. He must devote of himself nobly to ensure the well-being of his patient. However, today’s well-recognized nurses are notably different from nurses of the recent past. Service is the core of the nursing profession, and the essential evolution of the vocation reflects the ever-changing needs of the diverse patient population that it serves. As a profession, nursing has evolved progressively, particularly in its modernization throughout the past two centuries with the influence of Florence Nightingale. The field of nursing continues to grow and diversify even today, as nurses receive greater medical credibility and repute, as its minority representations