Talk:National Health Service

Comment

Note: To discuss the article National Health Service (England), please see Talk:National Health Service (England). this article is about the general concept of National Health Service.

History

I notice a lot of the history of the NHS and the motivations behind its creation - which equally applies to the rest of the UK - is displayed on the NHS England page, with scant information provided on, for example, the NHS Scotland page - and even less here.

I would like to gauge approval for expanding this article to cover the motivations behind the creation of a national health service in the UK, whilst providing a summary 'main article' link on each of the four NHSs' pages. --Breadandcheese (talk) 14:37, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

That sounds like a very sensible approach. -- Derek Ross | Talk 15:15, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry to give a differing view, but the claim "which equally applies to the rest of the UK" is not entirely an accurate picture of the history. I think a better idea would be to add links from this article to the articles 'History of NHS Scotland', History of the NHS' etc Cheers Fishiehelper2 (talk) 17:07, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

No need to apologise for giving a divergent opinion! It is just that neither the NHS Scotland page or this general NHS page makes mention of, for example, the Beveridge Report, the role of Bevan or the motivations behind the creation of an institution which has been so significant in UK history. One shouldn't have to go to the NHS in England page to find out this information, which is relevant across the UK. --Breadandcheese (talk) 18:55, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Manx NHS; ending of reciprocal rrangement with UK NHSs

What’s inappropriate about including the Manx system and expanding the topic to include all British Isles NHS systems? It’s topical (was in the news recently) and relates to territory within the Common Travel Area affecting potentially up to 70 million visitors. A traveler could visit there without even a passport, and find out that the NHS while looking like the others isn’t available nor does their EHIC card work if they’re ill. I think that makes the changes appropriate and useful, and I’d be happy to hear the reasoning why it’s not. Zagubov (talk) 09:06, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

I agree, though I would not use the phrase 'British Isles' - better to just list the countries or say 'the United Kindgom and the Isle of Man'. Cheers Fishiehelper2 (talk) 11:57, 18 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks- found out more now- the cancellation of the agreement is postponed until October 2010, so will amend the info. Will choose a suitable reference when I get a moment. Zagubov (talk) 10:14, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

What this article needs

What remains unclear about this article is whether the NHS is an insurance scheme or outright government-owned (nationalized) health care -- meaning the state owns the providers (hospitals, doctors, etc.) If it's universal insurance (like Canada's Medicare), then who owns the providers? Are they largely private? If the NHS is a nationalized system, then is there any need for insurance per se? Wouldn't the system be funded primarily by taxes and supplemented by what Americans call "co-pays"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cgay88 (talk • contribs) 15:30, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

This lack of clarity is the actual situation. It isn't a fault in the article.Rathfelder (talk) 23:51, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

It's all a bit of a mess. Pleasetry (talk) 23:55, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

List of NHS websites

There are a lot of NHS websites scattered about and I think it would be a good idea to have a main list on this article detailing them. Pleasetry (talk) 23:45, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Isn't that why we have categories? there must be at least 1000 articles on various aspects of the NHS. Rathfelder (talk) 23:51, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

A section on the differences between NHS regions

It could also do with a short section briefly detailing the differences between England,Scotland and any other regions.Pleasetry (talk) 00:00, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

No criticism section?

Is the NHS beyond reproach? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.114.64.28 (talk) 05:38, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Ideally, no article would have a dedicated Wikipedia:Criticism section. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:48, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Merger proposal

I propose that Emergency Medical Services 1939-1945 be merged into National Health Service. The former is a fairly short entry with a title that could be confusing. At first I thought that the entry would summarize the history of emergency medical services between 1939 and 1945. Since this seems to have been an important step in the development of the NHS, I think it might make the most sense to incorporate it here. EricEnfermero ^HOWDY! 18:54, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Disagree. The treatement of the NHS is confusing enough already. The EMS was legally speaking an entirely separate animal. The article needs development. not mergingRathfelder (talk) 23:46, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

I also diagree with the merger proposal. This article covers four health-care organisations which came into life in 1948 as a result of the Beveredge report of 1942 and the subsequent establishment of a welfare state in the UK. There isn't a great deal of evidence that the EMS was a really a precursor (except in the sense of being chronologically first), it would likely have been deemed necessary in wartime whether or not a wider healthcare scheme was established later. So the EMS is really out of scope of this article. Thom2002 (talk) 18:57, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Disagree - The EMS was a separate entity which existed during the war, the NHS was post war. -- Cowplopmorris^Talk_Contribs 14:36, 3 February 2014 (UTC)