What Is Wrong with the NHS
27th July
Interestingly the National Health Service is one of those services that one cannot live with but also cannot live without. One of the first actions every new administration takes is a review of the NHS, how it works, how it is funded and to a degree how it performs. The NHS was founded in 1948. The program is funded primarily by income from taxation. The health care system is comprised of 4 individual units including the NHS of England, the NHS of Northern Ireland, the NHS of Scotland and the NHS of Wales. Each unit is similar but features subtle differences.
The NHS provides medical services to more than 62 million citizens as well as qualified internationals. Services are provided at no fee at point of use. An overview of provided services includes everything from routine treatments for colds to open heart surgery and everything in between. The health care system is designed to provide comprehensive, first-rate health care.
Nationwide, the NHS employs more than 1.7 million men and women. Of this total, 39,409 persons are general practitioners, 410,615 are nurses, 18,450 serve in the ambulance sector and 103,912 are in the hospital and community health service sector. NHS England employs 1.4 million health care professionals, leaving just 300,000 practitioners to service the outlying NHS divisions. Approximately 3 million patients are treated in NHS England facilities every week.
One of the controversial components of the NHS program is its relationship to medical care as a result of automobile accidents. Since 1948, traffic accidents were chargeable services. In most cases, this was not enforced. Since the passage of the Road Traffic NHS Charges Act of 1999, medical cost resulting from auto accidents are chargeable to the patient's auto insurer. While the patient does not bear the expense, the insurer passes these costs along by way of increased premiums.
A consistent criticism of the NHS is its inability to address issues of needless overspending. The NHS has an excellent reputation for implementing new technologies and devices by carelessly administering patient care. The lack of controlled spending for core functions has been a consistent theme ever since the NHS was founded.
Current criticisms and weaknesses of the NHS are:
Minor weaknesses in the NHS are the lack of a viable prescription coverage and the lack of adequate dental coverage. These elements are not incidental expenses.
The system is designed to provide valuable and necessary services. The system has successfully treated millions of suffering citizens. The most common criticism is that the system does not inspire modernization. Without competition, physicians and researchers have no incentive to discover new equipment or therapies.
Compare the NHS mechanics to the Children's Hospital of Boston. The lead cardiologist found that children were traumatized by probes to the heart. The procedure was just too invasive and because children are vulnerable when anesthesia is used, fatalities were occurring.
Applying open innovation, the cardiology department worked with a digital game manufacturer, the physician invented a much less invasive protocol that required local numbing. The treatment called for a monitor that was inserted into an artery and navigated by the use of a joystick to measure and send images of heart function to a computer.
When the NHS encourages open innovation. It will come of age.
The NHS provides medical services to more than 62 million citizens as well as qualified internationals. Services are provided at no fee at point of use. An overview of provided services includes everything from routine treatments for colds to open heart surgery and everything in between. The health care system is designed to provide comprehensive, first-rate health care.
Nationwide, the NHS employs more than 1.7 million men and women. Of this total, 39,409 persons are general practitioners, 410,615 are nurses, 18,450 serve in the ambulance sector and 103,912 are in the hospital and community health service sector. NHS England employs 1.4 million health care professionals, leaving just 300,000 practitioners to service the outlying NHS divisions. Approximately 3 million patients are treated in NHS England facilities every week.
One of the controversial components of the NHS program is its relationship to medical care as a result of automobile accidents. Since 1948, traffic accidents were chargeable services. In most cases, this was not enforced. Since the passage of the Road Traffic NHS Charges Act of 1999, medical cost resulting from auto accidents are chargeable to the patient's auto insurer. While the patient does not bear the expense, the insurer passes these costs along by way of increased premiums.
A consistent criticism of the NHS is its inability to address issues of needless overspending. The NHS has an excellent reputation for implementing new technologies and devices by carelessly administering patient care. The lack of controlled spending for core functions has been a consistent theme ever since the NHS was founded.
Current criticisms and weaknesses of the NHS are:
- Failure to coordinate and communicate failures caused by treating symptoms rather than root causes.
- Hesitancy to use new technologies for high-risk cases.
- Complacent medical practices that are not cutting edge and a culture that does not reward advanced studies.
- The absence of a comprehensive case reporting protocol that provides valuable input on specific failures. Recommendations have suggested a financial benefit for physicians who meticulously document and provide treatment that fails.
- Tight controls to prevent human error in patient care.
- Failure to implement sound safety information systems accessible to all four NHS components. An inability to acknowledge that "near misses" are as important as successes.
Minor weaknesses in the NHS are the lack of a viable prescription coverage and the lack of adequate dental coverage. These elements are not incidental expenses.
The system is designed to provide valuable and necessary services. The system has successfully treated millions of suffering citizens. The most common criticism is that the system does not inspire modernization. Without competition, physicians and researchers have no incentive to discover new equipment or therapies.
Compare the NHS mechanics to the Children's Hospital of Boston. The lead cardiologist found that children were traumatized by probes to the heart. The procedure was just too invasive and because children are vulnerable when anesthesia is used, fatalities were occurring.
Applying open innovation, the cardiology department worked with a digital game manufacturer, the physician invented a much less invasive protocol that required local numbing. The treatment called for a monitor that was inserted into an artery and navigated by the use of a joystick to measure and send images of heart function to a computer.
When the NHS encourages open innovation. It will come of age.