The NHS (National Health Service) in the United Kingdom can serve as an example of a healthcare organization that failed the national self-assessment strategy. The NHS is a group of publicly funded healthcare systems based in the United Kingdom, consisting of three other NHS in England, Wales, Scotland, and Health and Social Care in North Ireland. Initially, it got financing from the government, but in 1948 the organization switched to general taxation and National Insurance contributions. It was launched on July 5, 1948, with a fund of 437 million pounds (Anandavica et al., 2022). The main principles and vision of the NHS were to provide accessible healthcare to all UK residents regardless of their ability to pay free of charge except for the treatment of dental and optical illnesses. Nowadays, only the NHS in England has 1.5 million employees, which makes it one of the largest work providers (Bailey et al., 2022). However, this workforce is still insufficient and does not meet the demand for needed physicians, doctors, and nurses.
Unfortunately, as one of the biggest healthcare providers, the NHS has had several failures in different fields. First of all, the NHS’s main issue is its funding and trust. After the boost of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHS felt a large gap in financing. However, funding was deficient even before the start of the pandemic. The NHS faced tremendous funding problems because of the increasing demand for healthcare services and the exclusion of long-term investment costs for staff training and building enough equipment and facilities (Anandavica et al., 2022). The funding issue led to several other problems such as the quality of the provided care, shortage of workforce, etc. Moreover, the pressure from the COVID-19 outbreak also increased the NHS expenditures on vaccines and care provision. Even though 2021, the funding for the NHS was raised, there is still a need for an additional supply of money.
Secondly, another problem that affects the quality of the healthcare provided is a shortage of General Practitioners, nurses, and other vital staff. This deficit is mainly associated with the abovementioned challenge. Even though the NHS offers work for a huge number of people throughout the United Kingdom, it is still not enough to cover the requested demand. This problem was especially alarming and noticeable during the COVID-19 pandemic (Iaocobucci, 2022). The lack of staff training courses and a high level of workforce dismissal caused this dramatic shortage. As there are too many uncovered vacancies in the NHS, existing staff have to fill these gaps, which leads to high levels of burnout, stress, and, eventually, a high rate of staff turnover. According to the King’s Fund survey, one of the main reasons nurses and other practitioners quit their jobs in the NHS is the high level of bullying and discrimination present in the organization (Bailey et al., 2022). There was a need for transparent workforce planning that the House of Lords should have passed; however, it failed to do so.
In addition, the poor level of provided healthcare and increasing mortality rates from cancer, heart attacks, and strokes are other fronts of the NHS’s failures. According to the report prepared for the 70th anniversary of the NHS, the number of people who die from diseases such as cancer, heart attacks, and strokes is higher in the United Kingdom than in other countries included in the research (Dayan et al., 2018). Moreover, the child mortality rate is also alarmingly high among UK residents. This trend can be associated with the two abovementioned problems: insufficient funding and a lack of professionals. Although the overall image of mortality rates among cancer patients and patients with heart attacks and strokes is improving, the number of people dying annually from these diseases is persistently concerning. Moreover, there is still an issue with accessing mental health services in the NHS.
In conclusion, it is seen that the NHS, as the main healthcare organization providing medical services to the whole UK population, has several weaknesses that must be eliminated. Factors such as funding shortage, an inadequate workforce, and high mortality rates are all interconnected, causing the NHS to perform worse than it should. However, there is still a hope that with the increase in supplies, the NHS will demonstrate better outcomes.
References
Anandavica, S., Maguire, D., & Murray, R. (2022). NHS funding: Our position. The King’s Fund.
Bailey, S., Anandavica, S., Maguire, D., & Murray, R. (2022). NHS workforce: Our position. The King’s Fund.
Dayan, M., Ward, D., Gardner, T., & Kelly, E. (2018). How good is the NHS? The Health Foundation, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the King’s Fund, and the Nuffield Trust.
Iacobucci, G. (2022). COVID-19: NHS trusts declare “critical incidents” because of staff shortages. BMJ, 376.