NHS IN ENGLAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND

NHS IN ENGLAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND

AND IT'S IMPACT ON PATIENT CARE



NHS IN ENGLAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND

AND IT'S IMPACT ON PATIENT CARE

Introduction

The NHS was founded on the 5th July 1948 when Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan opened the first hospital; 'Park Hospital' in Manchester.  This brought together healthcare professionals to provide free services for all.  Healthcare was financed entirely from taxation which enabled people to pay according to their needs. Although funded centrally from national taxation, NHS services in England and Northern Ireland are managed separately. Some differences have emerged between these systems in recent years, but still remain similar in most aspects and talked about as belonging to a single, unified system.

Since its launch in 1948, the NHS has grown to become one of the world's largest most efficient publicly funded health service, with an approximate budget of £9 billion(today's value), in 2007/08 received more than £90 billion. This equates to a spending of approximately 3% a year after inflation.  Recently it has doubled to fund a major modernisation programme. The NHS employs more than 1.5m people, with 1.3m being employed in England.

Discussion

From the instigation of the NHS in 1948 until 1974, the Northern Ireland health services were administered in a tripartite system with different structures for hospitals, general practice and public health.  In 1974 four health and social service boards - eastern, western, northern and southern were established to administer health and social services, including public health.  GPs remained, and still do, independent contractors.  Northern Ireland followed the 1991 changes in the health service with the introduction of health and social services trusts, with the four boards becoming the commissioners of services. (http://www.euro.who.Int/Document/OBS/Northern-Ireland.pdf)

The medical profession criticised the separation of the NHS into three parts (Hospital, General Practice and Local Health Authorities).  The Cogwheel Report in 1967 highlighted the efforts that had been made to reduce the disadvantages of the separation of the NHS structure, the complexity of the NHS, and the importance of change to meet the future needs of patients.

In 1972, CT scans revolutionised the way in which doctors examined the body, and although scanners have developed enormously, the principal remains the same.  MRI scanners were introduced in the 1980's. The Black report in the 1980's aimed to investigate the inequality of healthcare that existed despite the foundation of the NHS, for example infant mortality rates, life expectancy, use of medical devices and gaps in social classes which resulted in poor people dying earlier than rich people. The Whitehead Report in 1987 and the Acheson Report in 1988 both reached the same conclusion as the Black report.

In 1986 in keeping with the NHS's original concept that it should improve health and prevent disease rather than just offer treatment the public were shocked with the aids campaign, and household leaflet in 1987 which warned the public “Don't die of ignorance”, breast screen was introduced a year later to reduce deaths by 20% of breast cancer in women over ...