In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:  Assess the impact of economic, social, and cultural factors on communities and healthcare organizations in the

Running head: UK HEALTHCARE 0

Healthcare in the United Kingdom

Luz Rodriguez

Southern New Hampshire University

Introduction

The purpose of the country profile is to understand the healthcare system in the United Kingdom. The country profile should give a detailed view of this healthcare system that is different from the one in the United States. The selection of this country is based on the fact that it is one of the few where the National Health System (NHS) covers the whole population. The selection of the UK is important so as to understand what would happen or what happens when there is a universal healthcare. The healthcare system is financed wholly through general taxation and it is under the Department of Health (Phung et al., 2020). The responsibility of purchasing the healthcare services across the United Kingdom is controlled at the constituent country level. The country has the universal system and at the same time there is a rise in the private healthcare at the time. Around 12% of the population has private health insurance.

The UK has a complex healthcare system that is made up of private for profit hospitals, private nonprofit hospitals, as well as public hospitals. The public owns the majority of the hospitals and each of them is operated independently. The hospitals are organized around hospital trusts with three levels of hierarchy. There are district hospitals, community hospitals, interregional and regional hospitals (West and Nayar, 2016).

The country also has specialized hospitals that will offer some advanced treatment. The primary healthcare in the UK is provided by General Practitioners (GPs). The GPs in the system work as gatekeepers through providing some access to secondary care. In the UK, there are around 3.1 million social and healthcare employees representing around 10% of the national employment. There are around 1.4 million employees who work in the hospitals while 67% of the physicians in the country work in hospitals in the country (Hui et a., 2020).

There are important details that one needs to understand about the UK so as to understand the healthcare system. The country has a population of around 60 million people today each of who access the healthcare. There is a death rate of 10.2% with a life expectancy today of 81 years for women and 77 years for the men. The total expenditure on healthcare for the country is 7.7% of the gross domestic product of the country. The United Kingdom is located in continental Europe with a climate that can be best described as temperate. The country gets cool, wet winters and warm together with wet summers. The majority of the country does not feature extremes in terms of cold and heat or wind that can be seen in other temperate climates.

The government of the UK is referred formally as Her Majesty’s government and it is the central government that is in charge of Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The primate minister who makes a selection of the rest of the ministers leads the government in the country. The prime minister together with the other ministers belongs to the cabinet, which is the supreme decision-making committee in the country. These government ministers also sit in the parliament and are accountable to the members of parliament. The country’s government can be best described as a constitutional monarchy where the king or queen in place is the head of state.

General State of Healthcare

There are several health related issues that are there in the world today. The UK is facing health demands as a result of the aging populating. The latest data from the health service shows that people are expected to live around 63 years in good health. The data therefore shows that women will have 19 years of poor health while men will get around 16 years of health (Hui et a., 2020). There are some health related challenges that are expected in this case and are witnessed such as dementia. The dementia also has Alzheimer’s disease, which has already been identified as the leading cause of death in women today. The leading cause of death for men in the UK is heart disease closely followed by Alzheimer’s. Other health related conditions include muscle and joint problems. There are other conditions such as sight loss and hearing loss that come as a result of aging.

There are also some lifestyle changes that bring about various health challenges. One of the health challenges that are witnessed today is smoking and obesity. There are the two leading risk factors in the world today. The smoking rates have been reducing but obesity rates have continued to increase. On in four adults in the UK is obese and these levels are estimated to increase over the years. The number of people who have diabetes is increasing and there is an expectation of an increase by more than a million to get to almost five million in 2035 (Phung et al., 2020).

The next health challenge that is there is a rise in poor mental health. It has taken a significant roll on the health system in the country. There are various mental health problems that are facing the young people and them today account for more than a third of the ill health issues in the country. There are also some inequalities in access to health that have been reported. The individuals who live in the richest areas of England will get more than 19 years of good health compared to those living in the poor areas (Phung et al., 2020). One of the positive changes that have been witnessed is a reduction in the smoking prevalence in the country.

The health system in the United Kingdom today needs to change given the changes that have been witnessed in the country in the past years. The first reason for change is that the population is growing in size and at the same time people are living longer. Despite living long, the people are having some years where they are not in good health and this is a major challenge. There are new conditions such as mental health, obesity, and dementia, which necessitate such a change. The spending for the NHS has increased by more than 10 times in the last 60 years and it is important to respond effectively to this change (Hui et a., 2020). There is also a challenge because a significant proportion of the GDP is going to health

. The government is investing more and more of the public money to finance the healthcare system and this figure is increasing every year. The need for change also comes in because the A&E targets that are there are being missed every year. The four-hour A&E target that has been set is being missed showing that the emergency department is not as good as it is supposed to be. The missing of such targets shows that the health system is under stress (The Commonwealth Fund, 2018). Both the community and the hospitals are facing strain when 95% of the patients in the emergency cannot be dealt with in less than four hours. The system, therefore, needs to change to accommodate such challenges.

References

Hui, A., Latif, A., Hinsliff-Smith, K., & Chen, T. (2020). Exploring the impacts of organizational structure, policy and practice on the health inequalities of marginalized communities: Illustrative cases from the UK healthcare system. Health Policy, 124(3), 298-302.

Phung, V. H., Asghar, Z., Matiti, M., & Siriwardena, A. N. (2020). Understanding how Eastern European migrants use and experience UK health services: a systematic scoping review. BMC health services research, 20(1), 1-10.

West, E., & Nayar, S. (2016). A Review of the Literature on the Experiences of Black, Minority and Internationally Recruited Nurses and Midwives in the UK Healthcare System.

The Commonwealth Fund. (2018, March 13). What can the U.S. and U.K. learn from each other? Commonwealth Fund. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2018/what-can-us-and-england-learn-each-others-health-care-reforms