National Health Service in Great Britain

The main organ of Health Service in Great Britain is the National Health Service. The National Health Service Act was passed through parliament in 1946 and in 1948 this Act received the Royal Assent and was brought into operation. The N.H.S. consists of three parts: the Local Health Authorities, the General Practitioners and Hospitals or Specialist Services.

The Local Health Authority has an obligation to make arrangements with the General Practitioners for the vaccination of those who live within its area. The Hospitals and Specialist Services have definite interrelations too. The role of the family doctor is very important in the Health Service. Not all patients need highly specialized attention and the GP does invaluable work by filtering off 90 per cent of the total medical work

Most medical treatment in Great Britain is free but charges are made for drugs, spectacles and dental care. Free emergency medical treatment is given to any visitor from abroad who becomes ill while staying in the country. But those who come to England specially for treatment must pay for it.

The National Health Service provides free medical treatment both in hospital and outside. People may use the N.H.S. and they may go to doctors as private patients. Many people who have enough money prefer to be private patients because they think that they can in that way establish more personal relations with the doctor or because they do not want to be put in a large room with other patients. The patient in England can choose between the N.H.S. and private treatment at any time. Moreover he can take one part with the service, the other privately. If a patient is dissatisfied with his N.H.S. familydoctor or dentist, he may change to another one. In fact, 97% of the population use the N.H.S.

This freedom of choice applies to doctors and dentists too. All doctors may take part in the Family Doctor System and most of them do so. This service is free to everyone. They can choose whether they want to join the N.H.S. or not and if they can have N.H.S. and private patients. Physicians may have private practice receiving the pay directly from the patients for their medical advice. N.H.S. doctors are paid by the Government, the pay depending on the number of the patients they have served every month.

The hospital service includes general and special hospitals, tuberculosis sanatoria, infectious disease units, and all forms of specialized treatment together with the provision of most surgical and medical needs. Besides the hospitals there are infirmatories and nursing homes. An infirmatory is a room in an institution used for sick people. A nursing home is usually a "private small hospital for the patients and aged people. In fact, half of the hospitals are over 100 years old. They were built in the nineteenth century, they are small with about 200 beds. Such hospitals are uneconomic and cannot provide a full range of services, which require a district hospital of 800 beds or more. Now they have more than 150 health centres in the U.K. Health centres provide opportunities for hospital specialists and GPs. Health centres contain all the special diagnostic and therapeutic services which family doctors need, such as electrocardiography, X-ray, physiotherapy, etc. Family doctors have access to hospital resources and can be brought into close relationship with hospital doctors. Health centres are the bases of primary care.

There are centres, which provide consultant services in general medicine and surgery, ear-nose-throat diseases, obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology, psychiatry and orthopaedics. All consultations in the centres are by appointment only. The patient is given a definite time at which to attend. Each doctor decides for himself how many patients he can examine for an hour. It must be born in mind that the patient is the most important person in the health centre and all the energies of the medical personnel are directed to helping him as much as possible.

1 Answer the following questions:

1 When was the N.H.S. brought into operation?

2 What parts does the National Health Service consist of?

3 Are there any interrelations between these parts?

4 Are there private patients in Great Britain?

2 Arrange the following expressions according to the contents (keep to a logical consistency)

a) Types of hospitals in the U.K.

b) The interrelations between the three parts of the N.H.S.

c) Freedom of choice applied to doctors and dentists.

d) The N.H.S. and its structure.

e) Problems of British health care system.

f) Freedom of choice of medical treatment.