Write a summary about what you have just listened to.
In the video, Rebecca Onie who is the founder of ‘Health Leads’ discussed about the potential issues of lower-middle class health care service users and the ways by which the issues can be solved. Instead of prescribing medication, doctors should prescribe nutritious food, heat and housing to cure the disease prevent it from coming back. Moreover, clinical waiting room should be used for assessing the patient’s financial condition so that the necessary support can be provided to them. For this purpose, the college students should move ahead. They should be trained to introduce the poor health care users to nutritious resources.
Write a response to the opinions given.
The two opinions given by Rebecca Onie include:
1.Prescribing health resources in place of medicines
2.Assessing the financial condition and nutritious needs of poor patients in the heath care waiting rooms.
Both the opinions if implemented in the health care system can surely bring revolutionary change. Considering the fact that medication can never show effective result if the patient is not able to obtain proper nutrition, doctors should prescribe nutritious food in place of medicines.
On the other hand, if the nutritious requirements of the lower-middle class health care service users are assessed in the waiting room, patients lacking proper nutrition can be introduced to health resources.
PORTFOLIO TASK
Developing your arguments: Paraphrasing/Summarising
Choose one aspect (e.g. Point 1 or 2) and summarise and/or paraphrase the main points you noted in the outline on page 2. Use complete sentences and include in-text citations where necessary. (150 – 200 words)
Arguments in favour (YES):
Healthcare services provided by NHS are deteriorating due to lack of funding. The global financial crisis along with the recession in the year 2008, can be considered two of the chief reason behind the cut off from various tax funded public services (Dunn, McKenna and Murray 2016). As a result of this cut off, the requirement of health care services of the nation has outperformed the growth of the mentioned public service in the resent years. It can be clearly understood that this deterioration can only be prevented by providing sufficient allowance to NHS so that they can enhance their services.
The government must balance and quarantine the extra allowance provided to NHS to ensure that the money is being used by the organization optimally. The money provided to the organization is from the tax payment done by the public, the public needs to pay extra tax so that extra allowance can be provided to the organization. However, only two third of the public has agreed to pay extra to obtain better service from NHS. Considering the fact that the amount of money wasted by the organization per year is more than 2 billion pounds, strict observation of proper utilization of money is highly crucial (Stone 2015).
Developing your arguments: Combining sources
Using the summaries you wrote in the previous task, combine them below to create the first bodyparagraph of your essay. Use the guide below to help you and highlight each part with the same colour. (250 – 300 words)
Say why this is a key issue
(this is your topic sentence)
What is the counter-argument of this issue?
(this is the opinion you do not agree with)
What is the main argument of this issue?
(this is your opinion)
- Why is your argument stronger than the counter-argument?
- What evidence/examples do you have to support this?
What can you conclude from this? What are the implications?
You should use at least 2 sources in this paragraph.
For any nation, one of the most crucial sectors that need to be highly maintained infrastructure and coverage is the healthcare service sector. The National Health Service (NHS), which is considered to be one of the most effective health service provider in England, is reporting drastic deterioration in its service due to lack of funding. This can be considered as one of the major issue for the public residing in England since a majority of the nation’s citizens are dependent on the healthcare service provided by NHS.
According to the researcher, evidences that the mentioned public service wastes more than 2 billion pounds every year, has been found. Hence it is highly crucial to assess and analyze the process and strategy of investment of money by the Organization. The government needs to balance the spending structure of NHS. Moreover, since the organization is operated with the help of taxpayer’s money, the government can only provide extra allowance if the taxpayers agree to pay more (Campbell 2018). However, one third of the tax payers are not ready to pay for NHS’s betterment.
With the enhancement in the demand for health care service in England, It should not be expected that NHS can continue providing service to the public without extra allowances. According to researchers, 3.6 percent increment in the hospital admission has been reported in the past 2 years. Moreover, the yearly spending of NHS is increasing by 4 percent every year (Tweedie 2018). Due to huge mismatch between the requirements and funding provided to NHS, the services offered to the patients are not up to the mark.
From the above discussion it can be concluded that NHS needs to be provided with extra allowance so that it can cope up with the increased needs o the health care users visiting the organization for treatment. However, the organization should develop better planning and monitoring strategies to prevent the wastage of money.
One of the most demanded public workforce in the society is the health care work force. The demand for efficient, effective, and immediate health care has been increasing everyday and hence the need for better infrastructure and better coverage for the healthcare industry has been increasing effectively as well. NHS or National Health Service can be considered a sound authorative body providing a well articulated network of government funded health care services all across England. The service provided by this organized hierarchy of health care has contributed to a significant increase in the improvement of the health status of the country; however, like any other public service sector experiencing excessively increasing demands, a grave concern plaguing the efficient service of the NHS is the lack of adequate funding (Mossialos et al. 2018). Hence, there is need for increased funding allowance for the NHS sector to ensure better healthcare across England. This essay will provide as argumentative take on whether or not more funding should be initiated for NHS while exploring all the factors associated with the scenario.
Body paragraph 1:
The cost of providing medicines and other health care services has been hiking as well and hence the lack of funding is affecting the care quality that is provided to the tax payers of the nation. According to the Iacobucci (2016), the demand of providing health care is increasing everyday and hence the burden on the NHS network is increasing along with it. The population has been rising in the nation and the life expectancy along with it has increased marginally due to the health care reform that had been brought forward by the NHS. However it has also resulted into a higher burden on the NHS to continue to provide care. As mentioned by Iacobucci (2017), there has been a 3.6% increase in the incidence of hospital admission in the past couple of years and to meet the escalating demands NHS has been compromising the care quality. As mentioned by Tweedie (2018), the NHS is experiencing the most prolonged funding squeeze that the history has witnessed where as the spending of NHS increases by 4 % every year. The profound effect of the huge mismatch between the need of the NHS and the funding it is conspicuous on different sectors of NHS, such as the acute care, general practice, mental health, and even in community care practice. Along with that, it has to be mentioned that the performance targets or quality benchmarks that define the service standards of NHS has started being missed as well. As per the Dunn, McKenna and Murray (2016), four-hour treating standards have not been met since the 2015, 62 day cancer referral treatment goal has not been either and along with that referral to treatment target in the aspect of elective care target has not been met in the last five years. As per the authors, the staff morale and employee engagement is also being hampered due to staff shortage and excessive workload due to lack of remuneration in the NHS network. As a cumulative result from all the mentioned factors, the care standards are being affected drastically, hence the need for more funding is conspicuous for NHS (Lafond 2015).
Body paragraph 2:
Ever since the global financial crisis and recession that took over the global economy in the year of 2008, the funding have started to being slowly but steadily cut off from the various tax funded public services, NHS has not been an exception to that either. There is no doubt over the fact that the productivity of growth exhibited by the NHS in the recent years has been outperforming the health care need of the nation, and without additional funding for the service the patient care quality deterioration cannot be stopped either. However, the government spending increase in this sector will need to be balanced or quarantined to ensure that the additional allowance is being utilized optimally. First and foremost it has to be mentioned that ultimately, NHS is operated by the taxpayer’s money (Stone 2015). Given the impact of the never ending recession, the only way the government can allow additional funding for NHS is if the taxpayers agree to spend more for the care they receive in he form of increased taxes. According to the reports, two- thirds of the taxpayers agree to minimal tax increase on NHS if they could be provided better care coverage (Campbell 2018). However, the wastage by NHS on a per annum account is no less than a glaring figure of £2bn. Hence, any increase in the tax they have to pay for the NHS will have a significant impact on their own spending in this recession. Hence, the government will have to maintain a balance for the spending structure designed for NHS, on one hand by allowing additional funding and on the other hand, monitoring the spending to ensure that the wastage is minimal and the taxpayers get the enhanced care quality that they are paying for.
Conclusion:
Therefore, on a concluding note, it has to be mentioned that the scarcity of adequate funding is one of the key challenges facing the NHS and its service standards. With the increased demand of health care in the nation, it cannot be expected from the organization to continue to provide extended care to the public while meeting all the quality benchmarks. Hence, there undoubtedly a pressing need for the funding to be increased for the NHS however, there are other factors affecting the outcome of the situation as well. For instance, the wastage per annum by NHS cannot be ignored as well and the increase on the tax burden for NHS atop the tax burden on the citizens is a grave concern. Hence, there is need for better planning and monitoring of the spending structure on the NHS so that the extra allowance is utilized optimally instead of being wasted.
Reference List:
Campbell, D. (2018). NHS hospitals in England reveal £2.45bn record deficit. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/20/nhs-in-england-reveals-245bn-record-deficit [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].
Dunn, P., McKenna, H. and Murray, R., 2016. Deficits in the NHS 2016. The King’s Fund.
Iacobucci, G., 2016. Head of NHS England warns of tough year ahead. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 353.
Iacobucci, G., 2017. Labour urges government to boost funding for NHS and social care in budget. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 356.
Lafond, S., 2015. Current NHS spending in England. The Health Foundation, London.
Mossialos, E., McGuire, A., Anderson, M., Pitchforth, E., James, A. and Horton, R., 2018. The future of the NHS: no longer the envy of the world?. The Lancet, 391(10125), pp.1001-1003.
Stone, M., 2015. New development: The remarkable insignificance of NHS England's CCG funding formula. Public Money & Management, 35(4), pp.311-314.
Tweedie, D., 2018. Burning issues for 2018: long term funding of the NHS. BMJ, 360, p.k643.
