The Economic and Social Implications of Privatizing the NHS
You are required to develop a Personal Development Plan (PDP), which includes goals for the development of your academic skills after the completion of the module. This should include skills we cover on this module. To help you, write down the strengths and weaknesses you listed in EAP 1 in the box below, which can also be from your feedback. Use complete sentences.
If NHS is privatized, the services that are rendered to the patients will be much more efficient and timely. The greatest advantage that will be available due to the privatization of the NHS is that the patients will no longer have to wait for a long time before getting their turn. One of the major disadvantages patients face in the Government health care systems is that they often keep their patients waiting in a long queue before they can actually get to meet the doctor. There is also lack of enough beds or enough medical equipment to treat the patients. Apart from this, the government health care systems often do not have sufficient amount of budget to provide a proper treatment to all the people for a long time. They also face problems in providing free treatment to patients in need or in providing any kinds of insurance as well. So, in order to avoid these reasons the NHS must be privatized. Under privatization, they will be able to provide different insurance plans to the patients and also better medical facilities.
The weakness is that if NHS is privatized, there are chances of inequality in the society. Many patients belong from the middle or the low income groups. They will not be able to pay the huge bills of the new privatized services. Many of the patients who belong from the remote regions will perhaps not be able to reach the branches of the privatized. The work will mainly be carried on the first come and first serve basis. This means that only those patients who will be able to say the money and the pre booking fees first will get the service on time and the rest have to wait for their turn. So, there can be this disparity that will lead to clashes in the society.
Now think about what you would like to improve. Be specific when describing your goals and how you will achieve and measure them. (100 – 150 words)
Developing a Personal Development Plan
Target Goal Action Success Criteria Completed by?
To have clear paragraphs
To produce an outline before writing
The reader can identify the topic/ideas of those paragraphs February 2018
1 To write the answers short, precise and to the point. To create a rough sketch of the paragraph before proceeding to the next and keep a count of the words for each paragraph The answer will not exceed the word limit and will contain only the key points. March 2018
2 To make a rough sketch before starting the work To collect all the relevant data before proceeding.This will help in organizing each and every thing properly without losing any time.
3 To edit and proofread the work Allot some time for revising the entire solution so that the small errors are seen and then corrected before the final submission. The solution will be re checked and corrected to ensure that there are no errors.
Week 3: Organising your ideas: Are my sources reliable?
Look at the table below. Using the sources you have found (not from GSM Learn or the reading list), answer the questions below to determine if they are reliable. Make notes.
Who wrote/said it? Sir David Nicholson the Nuffield Trust Are they qualified to speak on this topic? Yes, he is qualified to speak on this matter. Yes, this is a group of independent Health think tank.
Do they have a personal interest in that issue? No. They are talking about the interest of their clients that is the patients. The interest is only for helping people know the about the pros and cons of the privatization of NHS.
What type of source is it? It is a pdf or an article It is obtained from an authentic website.
Has it been verified in any way? Can it be proved? It has been verified because it comes from a verified source and has been said by the chief It is verified as it is one of the most trusted website.
Is there evidence to support this claim? Sir David Nicholson, who is the chief executive of the NHS institute have spoken about this. The evidence is that they carry on a large scale research and development process and then talk about the pros and the cons.
Was the source created to persuade, sell, entertain, inform or for another purpose? Yes, it was for the process of information. Informing others. It was for the process of information.
Organizing Ideas and Note-taking Techniques
Is the content relevant to your research? Yes it is relevant for the research yes When was it published/last updated? Published first on june 2013 Updates almost every month Does this impact its relevance or objectivity?
Give the full references of both your sources here in Harvard Style:
Organising your ideas: Noting down the main points
In the space below, create an outline for your essay by making notes about any information you find from class or reading list sources and from the two sources you found. Use bullet points and not full sentences. Include in-text citations where necessary. You should add to this throughout the course.
Should the NHS be privatised?
Economic
If NHS is privatized, it will help in the patients will be able to plan their economy in a proper organized manner. The budget and economic management is a major problem. Often patients are not able to manage their economy or their finance in a proper way. Much of it is lost just to visit different doctors and to travel from one place to the other. If NHS is privatised, it will help in making a proper insurance plan that will guide the patients to plan their economy and their expenditure in a proper way.
Privatization will surely upgrade the facilities provided by NHS but it will increase the charges to a very high limit. In other words, people with low income levels will not be able to afford such high priced facilities. They might feel that under the insurance schemes they will have to pay unnecessarily high prices for visiting the doctor or for buying the medicines or any other such facilities. There will be a first come and firs serve basis that will only be helpful for people who are wealthy and can afford to pay the money first.
As health care institutes should be promoting social welfare, they must serve the patients with all possible resources. However, the public health care systems are often running in lack of enough budgets. They cannot really make provisions for providing enough beds or enough medicines for the patients on right time. They have to wait for a long time for a loan to be sanctioned by the government. However if NHS is privatized then the budget will not be a problem at all as they will not have to wait for any loans to be sanctioned. The tax burden will also be shared by all the stakeholders involved. So, they can make all the provisions to provide proper facilities to the patients on right time. This will help in promoting social welfare Privatization of NHS will also promote social disparity as it will make the charge of all the medical facilities very high. As a result of which many people are of the opinion that this system will help only the wealthier sections of society and not the low income level people. This might make the patients with medium or low income level to think that they are being ignored and are being deprived of the proper and the timely facilities.
Reliable Sources for Research
Choose one aspect (e.g. Economic or Social) and summarise and/or paraphrase the main points you noted in the outline on page 5. Use complete sentences and include in-text citations where necessary.
The main responsibility of a health care institute is to promote the social welfare. This can be done by providing timely facilities to then patients who are in need. These facilities include providing free or affordable treatments, having adequate number of beds to give accommodations to the patients whenever needed. However the public health care centres often lack these facilities. They do not have sufficient n number of beds to give accommodation to the patients. Often the patients are kept waiting at the queue. There is also lack of sufficient number of doctors to cater to all the patients. Often they do not have the proper number and the proper kinds of medical equipments to treat patients with different kinds of infirmities. However under privatization NHS will be able to provide sufficient number of accommodations for the patients. They will also be able to provide proper medical equipments and medicines that will be needed for the patients. Apart from this they will be using the insurance facilities that will enable the patients to plan their expenses properly. It will save the patients from spending extra time and money in travelling from one place to the other in search of doctors or hospitals. So, all these facilities will promote a peaceful and healthy living and in turn promote social welfare.
Arguments against (No):
Privatization will surely help the patients to have a one stop health centre where they will be getting all the facilities under one roof. This will bring them many advantages. They will get all the facilities at one single place. However this will not really ensure that all the people of the society will be getting the same kind of help at the same time. Rather there are many who will be deprived as well. The privatization will mainly work on the first come first serve basis and will need pre booking charges for availing many of the facilities. This will also increase the charges of all the medical facilities to a great extent. This will be beneficial not for the masses but only for the handful of people. The rich people and people with more or less affluent income will be able to avail all these facilities. The poor or the people with low income will not be able to avail these facilities. They will not be able to pay such huge pride for all the facility at the given time without any delay. It is for this reason that they will still be deprived. They might feel that there is no improvement in their condition even after the privatization of NHS. So, this feeling of disparity will lead to several conflicts and social conflicts.
PORTFOLIO TASK
Using the summaries you wrote in the previous task, combine them below to create the first body paragraph of your essay. Use the guide below to help you and highlight each part with the same colour.
You should use at least 2 sources in this paragraph.
Privatization of the NHS will cause an increase in the price of all the facilities provided. NHS will work on the first come and first serve basis. This will make it tough for the low income group people to avail all these facilities. This can cause social disparity as the low income group people will think that they are being deprived. Hence steps are to be taken to deal with this problem (England 2016).
One of the major issue that would affect the social and the economic welfare of the patients after privatizations is that there will be a sharp rise in the charges of all the medical facilities. As there will be privatization, the entire working of the NHS will be on a first come and first come basis. As a result of this, the rich or the wealthier section of the society will be able to avail these facilities. The poor or the people with average income will not be able to attain all the facilities on time. This will make them feel that their condition really did not improve. They will suffer from a feeling of deprivation.
Thus, it can be concluded that privatization will have the pros and cons. There will surely be some disadvantages with the privatization of the NHS. For the improvement of the masses this step has to be taken so that there can be up gradations in the facilities provided by the health care centres to the people of the society. However this fact cannot be ignored that the poor people might find it very tough to accept and adjust with this new system. So, it is necessary that after privatization, NHS also tries to lower the price of all the medical facilities for the poor or the low income group patients. They must conduct proper trainings that will be educating and teaching the poor and the less literate people about the benefits of the privatization. There must be equal facilities for all. The poor people must not feel deprived.
Write a summary about what you have just listened to. (No more than 100 words)
There are actually varied opinions regarding the privatization of the NHS. As per the opinion of Christopher Smallwood, the services of the NHS are undergoing a fall day by day.
Some people are of the opinion that in order to develop the medical facilities provided by NHS, Patients are often made to wait for more than 4 hours in the waiting rooms and then they are not even entitled to proper medical facilities. They always suffer from a huge lack of staffs and doctors. All these problems are mainly cause due to the lack of sufficient amount of finance that is available to the system. In order to increase the flow of funds in the system, the NHS has to be privatized. The French model can also be followed which says that the Government can go in a consultation with the insurance companies. The proportion of the cost of the treatment would depend and would vary as per the service provided. The cost of treatment for the very major disease will be provided by the State or by the Government.
However there still remains this doubt that whether people belonging from all the sections of the society will be able to utilize the facilities is a proper way. People coming from the poorer sections of the society will not be able to afford the high priced services of the NHS. Privatization will create a sharp rise in the price of all the medical facilities available. So, the privatization will make the NHS work on the first come and first serve basis.
Privatization of NHS is needed for the uplifting and the development of the organization but at the same time, the change must be made equal for all. Privatization will make NHS run on a first come and first serve basis. People who will be able to avail the developed medical services only if they agree to pay the money. This might be possible for the rich and affluent people but the poor ones will not be able such high price. They might also not be able to understand or afford the insurance plan that will be provided by NHS under the system of privatization. It is for this reason that there have to be arrangements that will be beneficial for the people belonging from the average or the low income groups as well. There must not be any social disparity created due to the privatization.
The French model can also be utilized in this context that will help in making a balance of equality among the rich and the poor. The state can negotiate with the insurance companies that will help in providing the cover for the huge costs of the treatments.
The privatization of the NHS is an age old debate that is going for several years. Many people have many kinds of opinions. Some are in favor of the privatization of the NHS while some do not really support it at all. Many researchers are of many varied kinds of opinion. Many people are of the opinion that NHS must not be privatized because it will become nothing but only a financial institution where people will get the medical treatment only after paying a very huge amount of money. This is because after privatization, The NHS will mainly be working the first come first serve basis. In other words, only those patients who will be able to pay the price first will be entitled to get the services first. However after privatization NHS will no longer have the financial problem. They will be able to manage the budget very easily as they will get huge loans from the banks and the other financial institutions. As a result of this, they will be able to gather a good amount of fund within a very short time period and will be able to provide the patients with the necessary and timely treatment that is needed by the patients. However at the same time, this fact cannot be ignored that along with the increase in the comfort level of the patients the complications in the process of availing the services will also increase. This is because the cost of all the medical services will increase. People will have to pay a huge amount of money for booking the beds or the doctor visits or even for getting any medical services (Almeida 2017).
On one hand, patients will be benefitted by getting all the advanced medical facilities under the same roof. Similarly, on the other hand, the patients will have to undergo a huge amount of complicated methods. One such example is the pre booking system. Though patients will get the facility of meeting many doctors and getting many opinions on their infirmities that will help them in the treatment process but they will have to pay in advance in order to book the date and time. Apart from this health insurance plans will also have their own benefits and drawbacks. This is true that under privatization, the NHS will be able to provide patients with many different health insurance plans. This will help them to get many facilities right under one umbrella. They will get a proper insurance coverage but they will also be bounded in a way. This is because all their treatment will be done as per the arrangements that will be done by the insurer. Many people may think this to be unfair. There can be people who do not really want to visit the doctors unless it is needed or they want to go to some doctors where the visiting charge is low. Apart from this the economic condition of all the patients is not same. It can so happen that some patients may find the doctors prescribing them very costly medicines. This is because the insurance companies that the NHS will tie up with will surely demand some profits. So, some people may think that the doctors are intentionally prescribing more money that will help in extracting more money from the patients. The doctor patient relationship must be very friendly and harmonious one. However under this privatization system, the patient doctor relationship can be affected in many ways. The patients might think that the doctors have become too formal and too business minded and are just being concerned about their own profit. The increase in the cost of the medicines will make the patients think that the doctors are unnecessarily prescribing very expensive medicines (England 2016).
On the other hand some people may really favor privatization because earlier there have been cases like improper treatments of patients and deaths as well. Due to the lack of proper and timely medical systems available, many patients have been left waiting in the queue for long time and often for day. In the course of this, no doctors or no other medical facilities were given to such patients. It is due to the lack of timely treatment that many of these patients suffered a lot. Often patients suffer from complications like heart attacks or asthma problems and there is a lack of proper medical assistance to give them proper treatment. Often the public hospitals do not have proper medical facilities or even sufficient number of beds (Kirkwood and POLLOCK 2016). However under privatization all these problems will be taken care of and will be solved. They will not have to wait for the government to sanction the budget. There will be many financial institutions and banks that will help in raising the funds. However the private NHS branches will mainly be set up in the towns and cities which will make it tough for the patients living in the remote regions to travel. Apart from this, people living in the village or the remote regions will not be able to understand the system of the insurance policies very easily. Apart from this, only the rich people will be able to avail the services first because they will be able o make the payment and then avail the services on time. So, the patients belonging from low or middle level income groups will really find it very tough to pay such huge expenses. So, they might have a feeling that they are being ignored.
Reference List
England, N.H.S., 2016. Health and high quality care for all, now and for future generations. NHS England, London.
Almeida, Á.S., 2017. The role of private non-profit healthcare organizations in NHS systems: Implications for the Portuguese hospital devolution program. Health Policy, 121(6), pp.699-707.
Kirkwood, G. and POLLOCK, A., 2016. Awarding NHS contracts to private providers decreased local NHS provision and increased inequalities: Scottish case study of elective hip arthroplasty. Journal of Public Health.
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