There has always been some sort of health service in the UK, but it was only available for those who could afford it. When the NHS came in to affect it meant that health care was available for everyone no matter what his or her position in society. As the health services developed the number of cases for specific diseases dropped dramatically. And it has also lowered specific statistics such as the death rate and it has also helped to increase our life expectancy. Justifications against keeping the services:
Initially it was hoped that as preventive medicine developed, and the welfare services gave people a better chance of healthy life, the satin on resources would ease. Today it is more common to talk of a ‘crisis’ in the NHS and waiting lists for treatment in hospitals appear to be an increasing problem. Fist of all people’s expectations about medical care may be altered. We have become accustomed to having the best possible treatment for all our illnesses, which is hardly a matter of complaint.
Secondly, the frontiers of medicine have been pushed forward and the cost of modern treatment can be very high. A Wolverhampton Surgeon illustrated one example of the ‘problem’ in 1982: ” We cam now save a limb crushed in a traffic accident but it may take four or more operations, five months in hospital and cost i?? 20,000. A few years ago we would have cut the leg off and it would have cost i?? 100,” (Sunday Times 14/2/1982). A third cause of the crisis is simply that the welfare state has done its job well.
The age structure of the population is changing as more and more people live longer. The increase in the number of old people has meant that more spaces have had to be used in hospitals for geriatric care. And again expectations are important. One key operation for many old people is hip replacement but waiting lists are growing. The problem of an ageing populations has been made worse by the scattering of families since the world wars so that pensioners are less likely to be geographically close to their children.
Increasingly old people have been taken into care, either in hospitals or homes, because there is no one to look after them. But in hospital beds in geriatric wards have their own waiting lists and state homes are full. Another effect is on NHS costs. It is estimated that a man aged between 25 and 44 costs the NHS over i?? 82 per year. People over 75 costs the NHS an average, six times more than those between 24 and 45 years old.
Various legislations including the Mental Health Act (1983) and the Children Act (1989) has been implemented by the social services, but there had been a series of incidents where social workers had been blamed in the media for failing to identify and support children at risk. Another problem is that different authorities interpret guidelines differently. For example, under the terms of the Community care Act (1990), serviced users were entitled to an assessment of their needs.
Different authorities used different criteria when assessing users, payment for services varied. After going through what I have written above, I believe that we shouldn’t keep the service I have looked at but I also felt that we shouldn’t get rid of them. Instead I believe the government need to take a long look t every part of Health and Social care services. I believe that they should reconstruct or do something to improve them further, so that there are no more incidents – for example what happened to Lauren Wright, aged six.