Health Care

Question: What is the underlying logic for the regionalized model (e.g. the traditional British National Health Services) and how healthcare provision is organized under this model?

The Underlying logic of NHS Model

National healthcare system was introduced sixty years ago and it has become a world's largest publicly funded healthcare system. This organization was developed on the basis of an idea that all the citizens should have access to solid medical care, despite of their income. NHS is free for people who are residents in United Kingdom, except for specific prescription, optical and dental services. The national healthcare system covers everything from common treatments to emergency treatment of serious disease and accidents such as open heart surgery or end of life care. On one hand, National healthcare system raise fund through national taxes. On the other hand, in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, National healthcare system is managed separately (Morrison, 2009).

In United Kingdom, more than 1.5 million people are employed by National health care system. Half of these people are clinically qualified and they include ninety four hundred thousand nurses, thousand doctors, thirty five thousand general physicians and sixteen thousand members of ambulance staff. The system of national healthcare deals with around one million people in every thirty to sixty hours, 463 patients in every minute. Each general physician in UK practices to treat one hundred and forty patients in every week on average basis (Hammaker, 2010).

The way healthcare provision is organized in NHS

The model of national healthcare system is divided into two sections, i.e. primary care and secondary care. Primary care is referred to frontline service in general, because it is the primary point of contact for a person with healthcare professional. The primary care is provided with a broad range of independent contractors such as general physicians, dentists, optometric and pharmacists. In short the primary healthcare has dominance of general physicians including 2/3rd of all the physicians in United Kingdom (Lighter & Fair, 2004).

Secondary care is regarded as acute healthcare service. This care is provided either in case of emergency or elective care. Elective care is the specialist medical care of surgery, which commonly follows the referral from healthcare professionals like community healthcare professionals or [primary healthcare professional such as GP. In secondary care, healthcare professionals also deal with in-patient care. In addition, the tertiary care is the care provided by healthcare professional, who is located at specific tertiary medical care centre. All the referrals are provided by General physician for further treatment and healthcare services (Lighter & Fair, 2004).

Analysis of NHS with respect to funds and performance

Around 60% of the budget for National health care system is comprised of the payment made to the staff members. Twenty percent of the budget comprised of payments to additional supplies and pharmaceuticals, whereas the remaining budget is spent on training, building, equipments, catering, medical equipments and maintenance of hygiene. Approximately 80% of the total budget of national healthcare system is provided by local trusts together with specific health priorities in specific ...