Health

The United Kingdom has had a unique national health service for well over fifty years now. This is known as the ‘NHS’ and it was conceived in an attempt to provide free health provision to every single citizen of the country. The fact that it is free health care is the biggest myth of them all, as Brits actually pay at least 11% in National Insurance contributions, on top of income tax (around 20 - 50%) to fund this service. Many other western countries are jealous of this healthcare system but fail to realise how duplicitous it really is.

The basic idea of the UK health system is for a citizen to be able to access the service whenever required. Primarily they will be allocated to a General Practioner (GP) and this will be their local doctor. In the UK there are also ‘Accident and Emergency’ departments in all main cities but with government cutbacks, more and more of these close down on an annual basis. People living in smaller towns and rural locations may have to travel for many miles in order to access this type of service. 

GP’s and A & E units triage patients and may well refer them to the departments of main hospitals. Some of the hospitals of the UK have now become so vast that most of the largest in Europe are now located in this country. The government has tended to favour closing down smaller units and consolidating more and more services within one location. 

There is always a fundamental shortage of beds in UK hospitals and under-funding means that the staff are generally overworked and the nurses are under-paid. In spite of this, the medical professionals are generally held in very high regard and the work that they undertake is highly respected.

Free healthcare is not available to non UK citizens. A lot of people make this mistake when they are travelling to the UK and therefore fail to take out adequate medical insurance. If you require access to healthcare in the UK, it is essential that you provide proof of your identity (e.g. a passport or identity card) and of your sufficient medical insurance policy. 

With a growing disillusionment towards the NHS, more and more UK citizens are choosing to take out private healthcare policies. However, they would still be required to pay National Insurance contributions and there are no opt-out benefits or reductions. The private healthcare system of the UK must rank as the highest level of care in the world. State-of-the-art hospitals and attentive care are two fundamental aspects that are far more guaranteed in this way, than through the overstretched NHS system.