NHS Origins: Political and Social Influences

Introduction

National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded national healthcare framework in the UK, which provides the high quality care and support to all people in the community. The introduction and development of National Health Service (NHS), passes through several political, social, economic and demographic factors. Social factors include the physical, biological, community and cultural factors that influenced the perspectives of the health leaders in the past to developed NHS body in the UK. On the other hand, political factors are the legislations, acts and policies that were conducted by government in past years, which assist the policy makers to understand the need to develop of National Health Service (NHS) in England. This presentation is going to highlight the factors such as political, social, economic and ideological factors that have potential impact on introduction of the National Health Service. Moreover, this presentation will also highlight impact of significant changes on National Health Service (NHS) on the service providers as well as on the service users, providing insights that may be beneficial for those seeking healthcare dissertation help.

Social factors leading to the introduction of NHS:

Different social factors are associated with the introduction of the NHS, which are Education, cultural context, health and community context, employment and economic stability.

Education:

As stated by Allen and Petsoulas (2016), education has been proved as one of the most important social factors which determine the standard of the health and social care in the country. In past centuries, UK had strong educational framework which consisted of several cathedral schools, grammar schools and convents. Moreover the children aged 4-10 years were compulsory for the primary education. Due to the strong educational structure, majority of the people in the UK were well-educated and highly sophisticated. Educated people are more concerned to the health and welfare as compared to the illiterate people (Balkham and Alderson, 2017). This is the reason why the UK people in the past centuries had sensed the need of a central healthcare system like National Health Service (NHS) with developing concern of the providing compact healthcare service for entire UK, it was necessary to develop a system which would provide the high quality healthcare facilities and care all the community people. Educational acts as one of the major aspects in order to make people more concern about their wellbeing and health promotion (Allen and Petsoulas, 2016). Strong educational background of past in UK leads to emergence of several doctors and health professionals who needed to practice in proper professional field in which they not only can provide the proper care and treatment to the community people, but also they can develop their own strength and efficiency. As a result, the UK government had taken decision of establishing National Health Service. However the processes of establishing this system took 6 years (1945-1951) in order to proper framework on the system.

Cultural context:

The UK has history of liberal democratic culture which assists its people to develop such as ideas and thoughts that will contribute to the overall community development (Arbuthnott et al. 2016). British culture in past society is highly enriched with art, media, comedy, cinema, education, architecture, invention, theatre and discoveries. People who belong to the highly creative culture are more concerned towards their health and welfare. Industrial revolution of the important cultural shift in past UK, which assist people to developed their overall education, economic status, healthcare and other basic needs (Currie et al. 2019). These cultures assist people, in UK to realise the needs to promoting one central and high standard healthcare system which can be controlled by the British. Moreover, behind establishment of NHS, another social perception also worked that, British government should developed such as healthcare system that will provide the equal service and health facilities to all people in the community with minimum fees. British government believes in the innovative and highly organised culture which can be contributed to the human welfare. This is why the government had taken the decision of developing NHS, the high quality, public funded healthcare system in the UK.

Health and community Context:

As compared to the recent healthcare context, is past time, the UK had less compact and organised structure in healthcare and social care framework (Di Giacomo et al. 2017). Evidence suggests that, along with the development of economy, education, political structure and overall culture in the UK in past centuries, healthcare system was relatively poor and unstructured. Through the developing educational, economic and social demand in the past, UK people also sensed their healthcare demands. In order to meet this demand British Government had realised that there is need of one compact and highly organised healthcare system which can provide the equal healthcare facilities to the entire community. During the year of 1945 – 1951 the entire National Health Service had been developed in the four country of UK such as England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland (Gutacker et al. 2019). As the time passes, the healthcare demands in community have been increased due to occurrence of different types of non-communicable and chronic disuse. In this aspect, the introduction of National Health Service in UK is one of the important initiatives that were taken by British Government in the year 1945.

Economic stability:

Economic stability is one of the important social factors that have potential impact on the introduction of the NHS. In past centuries, UK has achieved severe economic boom, which not only increases the purchasing of community people, but also developed the standard of education, culture and infrastructure of the country (Ham, 2018). Through the overall improvement in the country, the community people had realised the need of strong healthcare system which can assist people to get high quality treatment process and care methods. As stated by Ham et al. (2016), economic development triggers the development in health and social care context in the country in order to promote health and wellbeing of community people. In past decades, the UK economy had experienced the high level of success due to technical modernisation and industrial revolution. These economic booms assist the government to think about the investment process into the healthcare context, in order to develop the standard of the healthcare system of the country. Establishment of NHS is associated with high level of investment conducted by the British government which was only possible due to the strong economic condition of this country at ancient time.

Political factors that leads to development of NHS:

Based on the evidence based research it is proved that, British political system is dependent on the parliamentary democracy, under the constitutional monarch. From the ancient time, the UK has multi-party system, which had potential impact on the overall operation and performance of the healthcare system (Hammond et al. 2017). In ancient time, the overall political system of the UK focus on developing the effective healthcare principles in order to provide the proper care and treatment process to the people. Although the ancient political system, in UK emphasized more on promoting the effective healthcare system, it was difficult for the British government due to the multi-political effect on the healthcare system. Moreover, parliament democratic system was unable to make the compact system and healthcare principles that is required for providing the high quality and equal care fort the entire community. Moreover the hospitals in UK also were struggling for meeting the increasing health needs of community people. This situation made the British government to think for such a healthcare system that can control and operated the overall, healthcare system in entire UK in order to provide the high quality and equal care and process to the people. In 1945, British government finally established National Health Service which was one of the great healthcare initiatives that was taken understand the British Parliament. Moreover the introduction of NHS is also influenced by the ever increasing challenges tat ancient hospitals faced due to poor investment into the public section healthcare system (Ham, 2018). If government is unable to provide proper find to the public sector healthcare system, it becomes difficult for all the community people get the high quality treatment process at affordable rate as they have to choose he private hospital for their treatment. In ancient UK, the British parliament understood the needs of strengthening public healthcare system in order to make the healthcare facilities affordable for all the community people. National Health Service (NHS) is the common outcomes of these consequences.

Ideological factors that lead to the introduction of NHS:

Ideology can be referred as the shared belief, ideas and perception of a group in the community (Ham et al. 2016). The important aspects that are associated with ideology are ethics, populist, attitude, opinion and belief within the particular group of people. In past centuries, UK based culture had been enriched with art, media, creative arts, innovation, discoveries and proper health healthcare. Culture and overall social perception in a community determines the beliefs, opinions and attitude within community people (Hammond et al. 2017). In ancient UK, people believed in creative and innovative healthcare system that will provide the high quality as well as quality care and support system to each citizen. Moreover, ideology of people in the past time in The UK is mainly focuses on the promoting compact and affordable public healthcare system, which will make it easier for all kind of community people to get the affordable service (Hammond et al. 2019). Even in the political and cultural framework of ancient had the preference of strong public funded healthcare system, which will not only provide the affordable according to community people but also assist the, to get free from any kind of illegal privilege and bias. For this reason, British government had developed the ideas on establishing the National Health Service (NHS), this will assist the overall, community by meeting their health needs.

Changes in the structure and funding in National Health Service:

Due to ever- changing needs of the service users and ever chafing trend of health care business, the overall, structure and funding process in National Health Service has been changed over times.

Changes in Funding:

National Health Service (NHS), is a publicly funded healthcare body in the UK, which operates and control the overall healthcare service delivery in Scotland, North Ireland, Wales and England (NHS, 2019). Fund in NHS comes from the general taxation process. Evidence based report suggest that tax-funded NHS depends mainly on the overall economic structure of the UK. Moreover the report suggests that, overall the last seven decades, the funding system in NHS had passed through the continuous ups and down. After the recession in 2008, fund to NHS has reduced in faster rate, which not only affect overall healthcare system but also affect the quality of the service delivery process (Miller et al. 2016). Despite the effort of British government in promoting real time protection to the NHS funding the overall growth of the fund in NHS becomes slow down. In order to deal with this situation, Department of Health, England has developed the NHS Five Year Forward View which is aimed to increase the main funding level in NHS up to 2020. Through conducting this initiative, British government has become able to make betterment of NHS fund as compared to the other public services. During the end of 2016, NHS commissioners and professionals has set the STP protocol in order to make betterment if funding process. STP protocol assists the NHS staffs and professionals to maintain proper accountability and management of the entire funding process. Moreover this STP protocol assists them to setting the milestone and local goals in order to raise the fund.

NHS 10 Point efficiency plan:

Overall NHS plan is based on increasing the fund and productivity of coverall healthcare system in order to provide affordable treatment process to each citizen in UK (Powell, 2016). The overall cost inn NHS is lower than the other advanced European countries such as France, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. However, due to the free treatment at the point of times delivered by NHS, makes it difficult for the NHS professionals to manage their fund. The 10 Point Plan of NHS has been set in order to enhance the fund and investment into NHS, in order to develop the overall productivity. Office for Budgetary Responsibility has published the Fiscal Sustainability Report. This report highlights that there will an increase cost pressures and health spending for NHS, due to the slowdown of the overall GDP level in the coming years (Robertson et al. 2017). As outcomes of this consequence, the overall funding system in NHS will face the slow down due to the demographic as well as political pressure. Despite the above-mentioned challenges there are subsequent opportunities for NGS fund management process. In 2018-2019, the overall fund has been in set by the British government in such a manner that will assoc NHS in order to develop its efficiency and the professionals’ level. Through managing proper healthcare waste, NHS tries to manage the fund. In this process, NHS professional are going to provided with proper training about the methods in which the professional can manage the healthcare waste and reinvest this waste products into the new treatment process. Chancellor of NHS has made the restructuring of overall budget for NHS in which immediate action for ten fund care packages has been taken (Simoens and McMaster, 2017). £1 billion has been approved for the Local healthcare authorities under NHS system. Moreover in order to reduce the cost on the NHS system, British government has focused on supporting social care providers, managing healthcare waste and relieving pressure on the NHS Locally.

Hospitals trust now work on community and primary service and local authority services. More focus had been developed on delayed treatment, healthcare support and care to service users. Moreover British Government has made perfect collaboration with deportment of Health in order to provide 2000-3000 extra beds to NHS in order to reduce the overall cost and protect the real time budget. Moreover, in recent times British Government focuses on cutting down the temporary staffing cost and enhancing the productivity.

Changes in structure:

Since the NHS had been established on 1948, it passed through several reforms. Health and Social Care ACT 2012, has brought about the significant changes into NHS structure. During 1st April, 2013, the operation of strategic health authorities and the primary Care trust are ceased (Arbuthnott et al. 2016). Then the two bodies are replaced by the intertwined structure if he supports and commissioners units. NHS England now has the Clinical Commissioning Group which has taken the overall administrative responsibility. Moreover the public Health commissioning has been transferred to the local government. Moreover the Pharmaceutical service in NHS has also passed through the several changes.

Clinical Commissioning Groups: (CCGs)

Across the England, there are nearly 211 CCGs, which are responsible for administration, budget management and operation management process in NHS system (Currie et al. 2019). This aim of his body was to transfer responsibilities from NHS commissioners to GP at the local level. Moreover CCGs body deals with managing and appointing GPs into the primary and secondary care process. Based on the principles of CCGs, GP should be member of CCGs in his or her geographic area. The NHS services that are commissioned by the CCGs are medicine management, hospital care, community health, improvement if mental health, innovative treatment process and rehabilitation care.

Area Team:

The area team of NHS is assigned to allocate the £27.2 bn budget to different healthcare services nationally which includes primary care, specialised service, general practices (Di Giacomo et al. 2017) Community pharmacy and dental service. Moreover the area team has been designed to deal with the other additional tasks such as CCG operation, maintaining safety and quality of the healthcare, assuring the bias less treatment and care process.

Local Professional network:

After 2010, Department Of Health has developed the Local Professional Network as active part of NHS. This body deals with providing clinical input into the local commissioning decisions. Each Area Team (AT) is supported by at least three LPN (Ham et al. 2018). Each of the LPN deals with the different area such as dentistry, pharmacy and optometry. Each LPN deals with the needs ad criteria of each department. Such as Pharmacy LPN support the Area Team in order to develop and improve the overall pharmaceutical section within NHS. Moreover the pharmacy LPN deals with promoting the betterment and improvement of local Community pharmacy in order to meet local needs

Commissioning Support Units:

Since establishment of NHS, there are several reformed have been taken place in the overall structure of NHS, Commissioning Support Team, is one of such changes that provides the CCGs and NHS England different support (Hammond et al. 2017). The service of Commissioning Support Team is management of the overall pharmacy, contact negotiation, provide technical support, and overall management of treatment process.

Impact of these changes on service users:

Analysis of the overall changes through which NHS passes over the decades, shows that there are positive impact of these changes of h service users which are as follows:

Betterment of the overall healthcare delivery process

Faster healthcare delivery service to get the immediate treatment and support at the point of need (Arbuthnott et al. 2016)

Improvement of the overall NHS structure for promoting the innovative and ultra-modern treatment process

Easy availability of appropriate medicines and drugs

Biasness and high-quality treatment process that is free at the point of need

Affordable and compact healthcare service at any corner of the UK

Impact of these changes on service providers:

Opportunities for developing skills and individual efficient in healthcare field

Better assessment of the health condition with using the innovative and ultra modern treatment process (Balkham and Alderson, 2017)

Reduced stress of workload due to systematic appointment and management of staffs in NHS

Availability of proper guidance from different bodies of NHS such as AT, CCGs and Commissioning Support Units

Well-organised structure of overall healthcare system in NHS which assist health providers easily understand their responsibilities and ethical norms

Systematic use of healthcare resources in order to provide the high quality service to service users

Conclusion:

From the above-mentioned discussion, it can be stated that, NHS is public funded healthcare body in UK, which provide the equal and high quality healthcare service in the entire UK. Since its establishment during 1948, NHS had passed through several changes. Different political, social, ideological and cultural factors influence the introduction of NHS. Moreover NHS has passed through severe reforms of its structure and fund throughout the establishment process. These changes have positive impact on the overall healthcare system, service users and service providers. It is important for the Government to make potential continuous reforms and improvement of the overall NHS system in order to meet the current health needs in community.

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