National Health Care System Between China And The UK

COMPARING HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS IN UK AND CHINA
By Student’s Name
Course Code + Name
Instructor’s Name
Institution
City, State
Date of Submission
Introduction
Possessing a viable healthcare system is essential for the social and financial wellbeing of a country .The health care system in the United Kingdom and China have undergone tremendous changes all of which are aimed at improving health care services. For instance in the United Kingdom, health systems have made key changes which have made quality of health care a highly visible priority not only in Europe but all over the world. In United kingdom the public health care systems dominates with the private health care systems providing services to those willing to pay for it. China in the year 2005 made key reforms on its health care systems through the introduction of the New Rural Co-operative Medical Care Systems (NRCMCS). The introduction of this system was aimed to make the services affordable in the rural areas.
The United Kingdom Health Care System
The United Kingdom has a government sponsored universal healthcare system called the National Health Service (NHS). The national health services consist of a number of publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. These include national health services of England, national health services of Scotland, national health services of Wales and the national health services of Ireland. Through this system citizens are entitled to healthcare but have the option to buy private health insurance at will and at his or her own cost (Drummond et al., 2015).
The National Health Service program aims at improving health care through provision of power and information to patients, more hospitals and beds, more doctors and nurses, reduce waiting time to receive services, improve healthcare for the older patients and increase standards of health in general. The United Kingdom healthcare services based on quality and efficiency of service, access to care, equity and health lives is one of the best worldwide.
Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved function (Drummond et al., 2015). This means England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have their own systems of private and publicly funded healthcare with also and holistic and complementary treatments. Since each country has a separate system there is variation but all provides public care to all UK citizens with each of them having a private health care.
The united kingdom healthcare systems is publicly funded through taxation with the private healthcare service being acquired by means of private health insurance paid directly by the customer or through employer funded healthcare scheme.
Regulations and Policies
The healthcare systems of the United Kingdom is regulated and monitored by a number of regulatory bodies that assess the quality of services being provided by both the private and the public providers. Also the UK has a quality and outcome framework which is responsible in determining the quality of care delivered by general practitioners (Drummond et al., 2015).
Shortcomings of the United Kingdom Healthcare System
Although the United Kingdom healthcare system is one of the best worldwide it has several shortcomings. First, the active participation by the government has weakened the functionality of market mechanisms. Secondly, the tight control has resulted in lack of vital medical resources such as doctors, nurses and equipment. Also, the free medical provision has let excessive use of medical services which may not be necessary (Drummond et al., 2015).
China Health Care System
The Chinese healthcare system has undergone major reforms from the time of the Communist Party of China in 1949. The China’s healthcare system is run by the government and includes a substantia...