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Since its launch 60 years ago, the NHS has grown to become the world’s largest publicly funded health service. It is also one of the most efficient, most egalitarian and most comprehensive.
The system was born out of a long-held ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth – and that principle remains at its core. With the exception of charges for some prescriptions and optical and dental services, the NHS remains free at the point of use for anyone who is resident in the UK – more than 60m people. It covers everything from antenatal screening and routine treatments for coughs and colds to open heart surgery, accident and emergency treatment and end-of-life care.
Although funded centrally from national taxation, NHS services in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are managed separately. While some differences have emerged between these systems in recent years, they remain similar in most respects and continue to be talked about as belonging to a single, unified system.
Scale
Nationwide, the NHS employs more than 1.5m people. Of those, just short of half are clinically qualified, including some 90,000 hospital doctors, 35,000 general practitioners (GPs), 400,000 nurses and 16,000 ambulance staff.
Only the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Wal-Mart supermarket chain and the Indian Railways directly employ more people.
The NHS in England is far and away the biggest part of the system, catering to a population of 50m and employing more than 1.3m people. The NHS in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland employ 158,000, 71,000 and 67,000 people respectively.
The number of patients using the NHS is equally mind-boggling. On average, it deals with 1m patients every 36 hours - that’s 463 people a minute or almost 8 a second. Each week, 700,000 will visit an NHS dentist, while a further 3,000 will have a heart operation. Each GP in the nation’s 10,000-plus practices sees an average of 140 patients a week.
Funding
When the NHS was launched in 1948 it had a budget of £437 million (roughly £9 billion at today’s value). In 2007/8 it received 10 times that amount - more than £90 billion.
This equates to an average rise in spending over the full 60-year period of about 3% a year once inflation has been taken into account. However, in recent years investment levels have been double that to fund a major modernisation programme.
Some 60% of the NHS budget is used to pay staff. A further 20% pays for drugs and other supplies, with the remaining 20% split between buildings, equipment and training costs on the one hand and medical equipment, catering and cleaning on the other. Nearly 80% of the total budget is distributed by local trusts in line with the particular health priorities in their areas.
The money to pay for the NHS comes directly from taxation that, according to independent bodies such as the King’s Fund, remains the “cheapest and fairest” way of funding health care when compared with other systems. The 2007/8 budget roughly equates to a contribution of £1,500 for every man, woman and child in the UK.
Structure
The Department of Health is in overall charge of the NHS with a cabinet minister reporting as secretary of state for health to the prime minister. The department has control of England’s 10 Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), which oversee all NHS activities in England. In turn, each SHA is responsible for the strategic supervision of all the NHS trusts in its area. The devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland run their local NHS services separately.
Performance
Measuring the efficiency of healthcare systems is notoriously difficult. The NHS – in common with other healthcare systems – has never consistently and systematically measured changes in its patients’ health. As a result, it’s impossible to say exactly how much extra “health” is created for each pound spent.
Nevertheless, in the UK life expectancy has been rising and infant mortality has been falling since the NHS was established. Both figures compare favourably with other nations. Surveys also show that patients are generally satisfied with the care they receive from the NHS. Importantly, people who have had recent direct experience of the NHS tend to report being more satisfied than people who have not.
Hospital and Doctor in UK : You can find out a list of all NHS hospitals and Doctor clinics in England. Also, the website support the search function.
Two main private healthcare provider in UK.
BMI Healthcare: BMI Healthcare is a group of 49 acute care private patient hospitals around the United Kingdom with over 2,400 beds. Handling over 250,000 inpatient and 750,000 outpatient visits each year, nearly half of the procedures undertaken for patients are of a major or complex nature.
BUPA Healthcare: BUPA is the world's largest provider of international expatriate health insurance, supplying quality cover to people who are in their home country or living and working abroad. A network of over 5,500 participating hospitals and clinics worldwide.
There are about 30 pages of NHS information in my report <<Investigation of UK healthcare system and pathology market>>
NHS（英國國民保健服務）: 英国的国民卫生服务National Health Service(简称NHS)体系是英国社会福利制度中最重要的部分之一,是工党1948年倡建的重要社会福利。英国所有的纳税人和在英国有居住权的人都 享有免费使用该体系服务的权利。NHS的服务原则是:不论个人收入如何,只根据个人的不同需要,为人们提供全面的、免费的医疗服务。
NHS成立於1948年，是目前歐洲最大的醫療服務體系，但爲了滿足21世紀的需要，仍然需要對其進行完善。NHS架構顯示了是如何在英格蘭發揮其作用的。要瞭解英國其他地區醫療服務的資訊，請前往NHS in Northern Ireland（北愛爾蘭NHS），the NHS in Scotland（蘇格蘭NHS），或the NHS in Wales（威爾斯NHS）。要獲取更多資訊請前往the Isle of Man Government（馬恩島政府），States of Guernsey Government（根西島州政府）及States of Jersey Government（澤西島州政府）
现在英国的NHS实行分级保健制:
一级保健称为基础保健,是NHS的主体,由家庭诊所和社区诊所等构成,实行的是就地看病，如果是急诊,病人可以不必预约直接到医院的急诊部就诊。首 先在你的居住地附近选择一个家庭医生GP，他们一般是NHS在当地社区小诊所的医生。到那里登记获得一张GP的卡片，即列入NHS的系统了。之后，定期的 透视或妇科检查，就会由这个系统得到通知。有个头疼脑热，就去看GP医生，就诊和买药都不交钱，只是在药房取药时，每张药方需付6.4英镑的处方费。家庭 诊所和社区诊所是NHS的主体，按人口分布构成保健网，基本没有死角，NHS资金的75%用于这部分;
二级保健是指医院,负责重病和手术治疗,以及统筹调配医疗资源等。英国的医院分布比较均匀，每个大一些的城镇都至少有一所以上的综合医院。所有这类 医院的主要职能是诊断和治疗重病、进行手术和急诊，因此，都必须配备麻醉、病理分析和放射科服务等专科，有处理紧急事故、其他急症和GP医生预约的疑难重 症的设施，为住院病人、门诊病人或接受透析等特殊治疗的病人提供医疗服务。医院中的某些专科如心脏病、肝移植、骨癌等提供跨地区的服务。也有大型专科医院 如儿童医院、眼科医院、神经外科医院、妇产医院、传染病医院(如天花、肺结核)，也有专门为老年人、精神病和精神障碍服务的医院等，基本集中在伦敦等人口 稠密的大城市。这些医院既有高水平的专家治疗，也是培训医生和学术研究的基地
NHS的最大受益者是收入不高的广大平民,解除了他们健康方面的后顾之忧。英国《泰晤士报》在世纪之交曾做过一项调查,在回答“你认为政府在20世 纪影响英国人生活的最大业绩是什么”时,46%的人认为是NHS,18%的人认为是福利制度的建立,第三位才是赢得二战的胜利,占15%。可见NHS对英 国人的影响之深
但是NHS面临的问题和矛盾也越来越突出。尽管NHS建立50多年来,其规模在不断扩大,但随着人口的增加和人民对健康质量要求的提高,医疗服务远 远供不应求。1975年NHS的开支占GDP的3.8%,1995年是5.7%,2003年达到7.7%。2000年,全国公立医院有约50万张病床,每 千人拥有约9张病床,8名医生。目前仅英格兰的NHS系统内就有约100万工作人员,年耗资500亿英镑,号称英国最庞大的机构。NHS做过一个统计:1 周内,有140万人找NHS的家庭医生看病,80多万人在NHS医院门诊就医,70万人看牙医,乡村巡回护士处理70多万病人,1万多婴儿由NHS医生接 生,药剂师分发约850万份NHS处方药,外科医生做1200例骨科手术、3000例心脏手术和1050例肾脏手术。医生抱怨,他们是英国工作时间最长的 人。但民众抱怨,英国是全世界等候医院就诊时间最长的国家。他们质问,为什么英国人交那么高的国民保险税,却享受不到法国、西班牙的医疗水准?据官方的保 守数字,预约医院的常规门诊是6个月,等候住院手术要18个月
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