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What Do You Consider The Major Problems Of The Nhs At Present? What Should The British Government Do About Them?

The NHS is the nationalised hence, publicly funded healthcare system in the United Kingdom. The NHS is largely funded by general taxation (including a proportion from National Insurance payments but the National Insurance is not enough to cover the whole system)[1]. The UK government department responsible for the NHS is the Department of Health, headed by the Secretary of State for Health, who sits in the British Cabinet. The NHS provides healthcare for residents in the UK with most services free at the point of delivery for the patient though there are charges imposed in response to financial deficits and it seems to be moving towards a privatised sector on particular services e.g. Eye tests, dental care, prescriptions etc.

Around £98.6 billion in 2008-9[2] is spent on the NHS. It is the fourth largest employer in the world, and 70% of the NHS budget is spent on pay, a considerable sum goes to general practitioners, most of who have remained independent contractors and not salaried employees. Yet, many junior doctors and nurses still claim that they are underpaid. The NHS was originally a great system which was implemented after the war and as it was the only health service provider, it benefited from the economies of scale and hence average costs decreased costing the government a lot less money back then than it does today.

However, besides colossal labour costs there are other major problems currently present in the NHS which include Access controls, "Paying twice", Waiting lists and the 18 week target, shortage of beds, the outbreak of "Superbugs", computerisation, and Misallocation of resources which caused financial deficits in the past and with further injection of funding the NHS has resulted in a financial surplus at present.

Access controls
Treatments that are determined by NICE to be cost-ineffective (i.e. drugs that have only minor effect at great cost) are simply not offered by the NHS though may be available privately e.g. cancer drugs...