Understanding UK’s healthcare system: National Health Services

The United Kingdom is a sovereign state that comprises of the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, the island of Great Britain, and many small islands. The United Kingdom comprises of four (4) countries of United Kingdom, which include England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Each of these countries has its very own healthcare system. National Health Service (NHS) was the name given to the healthcare systems of all of these countries when they were launched collectively in 1948 by Labour party in the form of a major social reform following the Second World War. National Health Service is the national healthcare system which is publicly funded and is the oldest as well as the largest single-payer healthcare system in the whole world. NHS gets being paid for from general taxation and national insurance contributions.

The NHS provides complete range of healthcare services, majority of which are free for the residents of United Kingdom at the point of delivery. It works on the principle that remained at its core which says that good healthcare should be available to everyone based on the clinical need, regardless of wealth. NHS currently covers more than 54.3 million people in England alone. Except of some charges, like optical services, dental services, and prescriptions, the NHS in England always remains free at the point of use for all those who have UK’s permanent residents. 

The NHS in England serves more than 1 million patients in every 36 hours. NHS covers everything, including routine screenings, antenatal screening, and all the treatments for long-term conditions, emergency treatment, and transplants. In 2014, NHS was being rated as the best system in terms of efficiency, effective care, safe care, co-ordinated care, patient-centred care and cost-related problems.

NHS in England is under the control of United Kingdom government through the Department of Health (DH). This department is responsible for the funding and strategic leadership for both social and health care of people in England. 

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) is the part of NHS, and it replaced primary care trusts (PCTs) which were functional before April 1 2013. These groups commission all the primary care services and also some of the specialist services. Also they allocate funding to geographically-based CCGs all over the England. All the acute healthcare services along with community based health care services are commissioned by local CCGs and these are led by local GPs. The CCGs provide most of the services in their designated areas which may include hospital and community-based healthcare services. CCGs is authorised to commission any of the service provider in England that meets all the NHS standards being laid down. These service providers can be social enterprises, NHS hospitals, charities or private sector providers. These service providers must always be assured to keep the quality of services up to the mark, according to both National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

NHS has been the biggest part of English administration system so far as it caters to the population of 53.4 million of England by employing more than 1.2 million residents of England which is makes up of 5 % of UK’s working population and hence placing it at the top five of the world’s biggest employers. The workforce available are the qualified clinical staff which include 150,273 doctors, 40,584 general practitioners (GPs), 314,966 nurses, and health visitors, also it has 18,862 ambulance staff, and 111,127 community health service medical and dental staff. 

NHS also welcomes the international doctors and medical staff to join NHS and help catering to the United Kingdom’s population. NHS first tries to fill vacancies from the local resident labour market and then looks towards the overseas candidates. Employers also try to fill the vacancies in certain geographical areas or professions which have recognised skill shortages. 

International doctors must get themselves registered and get a licence to legally practise medicine in United Kingdom. This licence to practise in UK is issued by the General Medical Council (GMC). International medical graduates (IMGs) will be required to demonstrate their medical knowledge and skills before they are registered. For this various membership examinations are being conducted. Few of such programs from Royal colleges are as follows: 

• MRCOG: Membership of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
• MRCPCH: Membership of Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
• MRCOP: Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom
• MRCS: Membership of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons
• MRCPsych: Membership of Royal College of Psychiatrists
• MJDF: Diploma of Membership of the Joint Dental Faculties at Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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