EAPB3017 English for Academic Purposes 2

NHS or National Health Service was initiated by the Labour government of United Kingdom in the year 1948, right after the Word War II. This was a step initiated by them to provide free public health care free of cost without biasness in any field. The initiation was primarily carried out from the taxation (England 2013). In time, many debates have raised, if it should be privatised or not. Currently NHS is operating as both private and government organization. There are many opinion regarding the matter which can be summed up in two, Social and economical. There are both merits and demerits in privatizing NHS which requires a thorough analysis (Hunter 2016).

Efficiency is expected to rise in the healthcare resources and services if the NHS gets transferred in the hands of private management. Like all other private sector, private healthcare sector is also concerned about making profit at the possible reduced cost of operation. The management will likely device strategic plans to achieve time bound financial goals, which in return increase the level of efficiency in service delivery. Privatization will also bring competition, which can result in providing better service to attract the customers. Moreover, it has been noticed that, the private organizations are more concerned with sustainable and long term approaches. The primary problem of present government run NHS is the issue of funding which will be resolved if it is privatised (Kahungu 2016). On to it, government run NHS is in crisis for providing poor health facility due to insufficient fund. An immediate investment is required to come out of the problem, in which government is failing, as they cannot pump any more taxpayer’s money into a failing system. A large number of the patients admitted in NHS are smokers and alcohol drinkers, whose treatment cost the government a fortune. According to some, the amount spent in 2014 increased by 4.26%, where as it was 1.44% in 2013 (Powell and Miller 2014).  The figures indicate a gradual increase of interest in the private sector, primarily due to the improved services. This clearly foresees an improvement of the healthcare due to privatization from the economic point of view (Abel-Smith and Titmuss 2016).

On the social aspect of the debate, NHS faces many hurdles due to being under government management which can be eradicated. Government management takes poor decisions due to the influence of political ideologies and stresses which are completely opposite to economic competence and business ethics. Moreover, increment in workers’ wages has been reported multiple times to please the electorates. It increase unnecessary burden for the healthcare. The every government uses this as their tool for getting re-elected and makes blunder during the elections. This harms the organization’s services. On to it, the patients do not know the cost of a service as they go to NHS to avail free treatment. Privatization will make them to take decisions based on quality instead of price, encouraging the services to offer best quality care. Another problem that can be highlighted in this case is the debate among the public itself. A large number of the patients are getting late services, as the smokers and alcoholics are filling more number of beds in NHS. Many argue on this and asking NHS to charge the self-infected patients for their services in NHS, leaving room for the rest to get proper treatment. Privatization will completely resolve the issue as it is not possible to determine if a disease is self-infected or not, as aspects needs to be taken into consideration (Mudyarabikwa and Regmi 2014).

NHS was formed bringing all the essential components in healthcare, which made it one of the largest unions in the industry. Transferring ownership of NHS to private hands will surely bring an inherent monopoly. Domination of NHS in the industry will be inevitable for leaving it as a sole provider of healthcare public services. This monopoly will be bringing the exploitation of the fellow citizens by seeking more prices for the essential services provided. This can consequently bring an escalation in cost and deterioration in healthcare services, as they will be seeking to make more profit by cutting the cost of operation to increase the profit margins. A large number of the population might be kept untreated because of their affordability to expensive services that NHS provides for free (forbes.com, 2017).

NHS was formed around the idea to provide equal treatment to all regardless of any factors that come into play. Privatizing NHS will be unethical, as it will go against its goal. Secondly, government is held accountable by the public for and catastrophic incidents that occur in the public sector, which is expected to remain same in this mater. Additionally, the private organizations do not show any interest of the public, as profit making is their sole purpose, contrasting government services. Government is obliged to provide effective services even they do not make any profit out of it, and are bound to it. As a profit-oriented business can be expected for the privatised NHS, this trend of healthcare might get lost in the track. Government will again be questionable for the failure of privatised NHS which can bring chaos in the society (theweek.co.uk, 2017).

There are both pros and cons that will come with privatization of National Health Service. Privatization will surely improve the services of NHS and bring a proper structure in it, but there are demerits too which cannot be overlooked. Healthcare system is of public interest and should remain same. Privatization of this sector will surely bring change in the concept and affect the society, which can lead it to chaos. Government is liable to look after public interest and well being which should not change. As the primary focus of private sector is to make profit, there might be some dilemma which can go other ways. There are many cases all around the world in private healthcare services that went wrong due to profit making mind set of the organization. Making the biggest healthcare service chain of UK privatised will have its effect. To protect the interest of the mass, government should consider other means to keep it under government authorization.

References:

Abel-Smith, B. and Titmuss, R.M., 2016. The cost of the national health service in England and Wales. Cambridge University Press.

England, N.H.S., 2013. NHS ENGLAND.

forbes.com. (2017). NHS Privatisation. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/05/20/ridiculous-parliamentary-manouevres-over-the-nhs-privatisation-and-the-ttip/#3948ade1544f [Accessed 29 Jul. 2017].

Hunter, D.J., 2016. The health debate. Policy Press.

Kahungu, L., 2016. Should the NHS be privatised? Potential merits and demerits of privatisation of the National Health Service. GRIN Publishing.

Mudyarabikwa, O. and Regmi, K., 2014. Public–Private Partnerships as Decentralization Strategy in Health Sector. In Decentralizing Health Services(pp. 161-181). Springer New York.

Powell, M. and Miller, R., 2014. Framing Privatisation in the English National Health Service. Journal of Social Policy, 43(3), pp.575-594.

theweek.co.uk. (2017). the week. [online] Available at: http://www.theweek.co.uk/nhs/63360/pros-and-cons-of-privatising-the-nhs-could-it-ever-work [Accessed 29 Jul. 2017].