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Health Care Around the World: UK's NHS (National Health Service)

Posted by Scott Harrah
January 12, 2015

Pick up a British newspaper and you’ll often see an article about the NHS (National Health Service), the United Kingdom’s famous nationalized health care, which has both fans and critics.

In the latest installment of our Health Care Around the World series, the UMHS Endeavour examines the UK’s NHS, how it works, why it was ranked as best in the world by the Commonwealth Fund, the pros and cons of the system, how U.S. Republicans have used the NHS to discredit the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare and what Americans and students at American and Caribbean medical schools can learn from the health care system of America’s greatest ally. We will also talk to a former UMHS professor about the achievements of the NHS.

An NHS hospital in the United Kingdom. Photo: Francis Tyers/Wikimedia Commons

NHS hospital in the United Kingdom. Photo: Francis Tyers/Wikimedia Commons

How Britain’s NHS Works

The NHS was started after World War II to provide health services that were “free for all at the point of delivery,” according to the NHS website.

Time magazine wrote in an article about Britain’s NHS that it was created “to replace an inadequate system of volunteer hospitals that had, during the war, come to rely on government funding.

Health care through the NHS is provided by the British government, funded by contributions from the taxpayer. Prescription costs are subsidized for senior citizens and children, and have a maximum cost of approximately $12 U.S. for copayments for UK citizens.

The NHS covers everything from prenatal care to routine care, emergency services and end-of-life care. The NHS has 1.35 million employees in England. The NHS in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland “employs 153,427 – 84,817 and 78,000 people respectively,” according to the NHS website.

The Washington-based Commonwealth Fund ranked the NHS as best health care system in the world, the UK Telegraph reported in June 2014.

The Commonwealth Fund ranked 11 countries and their health care systems, including detailed data from doctors, patients and the World Health Organization.

"The United Kingdom ranks first overall, scoring highest on quality, access and efficiency," the fund's researchers wrote in their 30-page report.

The high ranking of the NHS is based on Britain’s “effective care, safe care, coordinated care and patient-centered care,” the Telegraph reported. The Commonwealth fund “also rated the NHS as the best for giving access to care and for efficient use of resources.”

The NHS outperformed France, Germany and Canada in treating the chronically ill, the fund’s report said. The USA was ranked last in the report because so many people without health insurance are turned away from care.

Birmingham Children’s Hospital in the United Kingdom. Photo: Oosoom/Wikimedia Commons

Birmingham Children’s Hospital in the United Kingdom. Photo: Oosoom/Wikimedia Commons

Former UMHS Professor on NHS Achievements

We spoke to former UMHS professor Dr. Gordon Avery, a UK citizen, about the many achievements of the NHS.

Dr. Avery said the NHS “was the very first Health Service in the world to be free at the point of contact. 1946.”

“It has undergone many changes since then, especially the introduction of private contracts - opposed by many people as breaking all the rules of a truly free service,” Dr. Avery said.

Dr. Avery said the NHS has numerous notable achievements, including many major research firsts, such as:

  • DNA - Human Genome.
  • Hip Replacement.
  • Penicillin.
  • Association of smoking and lung cancer.
  • Hospice care for the terminally ill.
  • DNA fingerprinting.
  • Primary role of GP Services as first point of contact for patients (GP looks after total care of families within their locality).

American GOP Exploits NHS to Criticize Obamacare

Some U.S. Republicans have used horror stories from Britain about the NHS (long waits for doctors, etc.) to bash the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare in the USA, claiming that the government-controlled British system is inferior to traditional for-profit, private American health care.

“Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa suggested that his Democratic colleague Edward Kennedy would have been left to die in Britain because doctors would have refused the 77-year-old treatment for his brain tumor, and former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote in an article that British health care is run by ‘Orwellian’ bureaucrats who put a price tag on life,” Time magazine wrote.. “Meanwhile, the lobby group Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR) has been running scare ads with horror stories from British patients on its website.”

In all fairness, the negative stories from Britain, both in American GOP ads and in the UK press, are not much different from the criticism of Obamacare in the American media.

(Top photo) NHS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: The NHS (National Health Service) in Great Britain is one of the biggest single-payer systems in the world. Photo: Courtesy of NHS


 

About UMHS:

Built in the tradition of the best US universities, the University of Medicine and Health Sciences focuses on individual student attention, maintaining small class sizes and recruiting high-quality faculty. We call this unique approach, “personalized medical education,” and it’s what has led to our unprecedented 96% student retention rate, and outstanding residency placements across the US and Canada. UMHS is challenging everything you thought you knew about Caribbean medical schools.

 

Posted by Scott Harrah

Scott is Director of Digital Content & Alumni Communications Liaison at UMHS and editor of the UMHS Endeavour blog. When he's not writing about UMHS students, faculty, events, public health, alumni and UMHS research, he writes and edits Broadway theater reviews for a website he publishes in New York City, StageZine.com.

Topics: Medicine and Health

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