The NHS: One American’s Perspective
Lynn Whitt
MHA 776
Dr. Leist
December 18, 2013

The National Health Service (NHS) of Great Britain was established in 1948 to create a national health system that would serve all citizens regardless of ability to pay. There were three main objectives established that were critical to the success of the program: (1) equal access to care, (2) provision of preventative and curative care, and (3) services provided at no cost to the patients (Perlman & Fried, 2012). Today, the NHS is still alive and well and is meeting the expectations of the original objectives set forth at its inception. Currently, the NHS is credited as being the single largest publically funded health care system in the world. In 2010, the Commonwealth Fund declared that “in comparison with the healthcare systems of six other countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and USA) the NHS was the second most impressive overall. The NHS was rated as the best system in terms of efficiency, effective care and cost-related problems. It was also ranked second for patient equality and safety” (Perlman & Fried, 2012). This paper will address the author’s impression of the NHS based on research and information collected and reviewed as well as discusses the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the program. As stated previously, the NHS is the world’s largest publically funded health care system. It employs approximately 1.7 million people of which include 40,000 general practitioners, over 370,000 nurses and 105,000 hospital employees across the system. In perspective, “only the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Wal-Mart supermarket chain and the Indian Railway directly employ more people” (Perlman & Fried, 2012). Over a 36 hour period of time, the NHS interacts with and cares for approximately 1 million patients.