I Am Currently Working On My Essay For LAW00032I Health Care Law.

Access to health care means timely use the services related to personal health for the purpose of achieving the best outcomes in terms of health. For attaining the Access to health care, it is necessary to follow three discrete steps, and these steps are stated below:

• First, individual must gain entry in the health care system.
• Individual must get access to the sites of care where patients receive the services he/she needed.
• Individual must find the providers who meet the need of individual patients, and those also with whom patients can easily develop the relationship of trust and mutual commitment.

This paper discusses the access to health care in United Kingdom with the help of various sections. Lastly, paper is concluded with brief conclusion.

Roots of the concept related to Health were studied by Dolfman (1974) and Balog (1978), and this was originally generated from the old English word which means the condition of the individual of being sound. In other words, health is not only associated with the functioning of physiological activities but it is also related with the mental activities and moral activeness, and with spiritual salvation. Therefore, this word health is always preceded by both negative and positive qualifiers such as good health and bad health.

Concept related to health presents form of ambiguity because this concept is multidimensional in nature, complex, and illusive. This concept of health is defined by various scholars and by the WHO also, and definition of health given by WHO is considered as most important and old definition. WHO (1948) stated that health is the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not only the absence of disease and infirmity.

On the other hand, concept related to illness appears as an objective approach when it is compared with the concept of health. As stated by Balog (1978), finding accurate and exact definition of illness was the difficult task as compared to defining the health. Therefore, it can be said that improper functioning and deviation from normality can be considered as important factors of illness. However, it is difficult to define the terms improper functioning and deviation from normality. In other words, illness is the feeling or an experience of unhealthy which is completely personnel and interior to the person or the patient.

As stated by Nordenfeldt (1993), if individual is ill then such individual is in pain, to be anxious, and to be disabled. This concept fits with the concept of sick role described by Parsons (1951).

After considering the above facts, it is clear that both health and illness can be defined in negative, positive, and holistic manner.

Socio-medical Model mainly considers the social factors which contribute in the health, well-being, and it mainly consider the impact of poverty, poor housing, diet and pollution. It mainly aims in preventing the ill health of individual by improving the housing and programs for the purpose of handling the inequality and poverty. This model also challenges the assumptions made about the medical model and mainly consider the wider factors in this regard.

Strength of this model is to encourage the people to live the lifestyle which is healthy in nature and also consider the causes of illness and disease. It also helps in improvising the elements which cause illness and prevent it from occurring again.

Weakness of this model is failure to consider the causes of disease and illness which are biological in nature, and it takes very long time in improving the environmental factors.

On the other hand biomedical model is the model which is commonly used by the professional of health care for the purpose of identifying the nature of medical condition. As per this model, health must be free from pain, disease or defect.

Strength of this model is that it is considered as successful model for diagnosis and treatment for various diseases, and this model is completely based on the scientific knowledge and research.

Weakness of this model is it fails to consider the psychosocial factors which mainly influence the disease and illness.

This section of the assignment explains the different patterns or trends in different social groups, and the four social groups in which these patterns and trends are fall are gender, social class, ethnicity and Locality. Patterns and trends related to health and illness within gender is a broader topic and as per the reports published in this regards, women’s more likely to get some types of disease as compared to men such as depression, anxiety, and other diseases which can cause mental issues in future. As stated by the Interactionist, gender stratification in health and illness is still considered because both the genders act in complete different manner. Numbers of experts are there who mainly focus on the day to day exchanges between the husband and wife for the purpose of considering the impact of male superiority is enacted.

As per one research, men from age group of 0-9 suffered with more long term illness as compared to women and in the puberty age also. In age group of 20-29, various statistical changes take place and women suffer more diseases as compared to men such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer and so on. There are number of stages in the life which result in changes. Women born today are likely to live longer life as compared to men such as life expectancy of women are 82 and for men are 79.

In other words, rates of illness in case of women are high as compared to men and women’s more visit to the doctors when they feel unwell as compared to men. However, statistics showed that men are more likely to commit suicide as compared to men, but it was also found that women suffer more depression and anxiety in terms of men because of which more women become disabled than men.

Overall mortality rate in case of men from cancer are almost 30–50% higher from women, and this difference mainly cause because of lung cancer among the men. In case of men major killers are lung, stomach, and liver cancers, and in case of women major killers are breast and lung cancers. It must be noted that cervical cancers play major roles in killing the women in developing countries. This can be understood through example, role of gender in ling caner is clear as smoking is considered as male activity which results in lung cancer, but now days it is also become popular in females also. In developing countries rates of death of men from lung cancer are declining but rates in case of women are still rising. On the other, cervical cancer is still considered as major killer in case of women in this developed world.

Structure related to material or structural explanation also contributes in this segment, and as per this approach factors which are structural in nature affect the health of both the genders and it further states that difference occurred in rates of mortality and morbidity in both the genders are result from the different roles played by both the genders in the society, their positions, and experiences. This can be understood through example there are number of women’s who accept the responsibility of taking care of children and other members of the family.

After considering the above facts, it is clear that women suffered more health diseases as compared to men because of their roles play in family, behavior, responsibilities in family, etc. however death rates from diseases such as cancer and heart attack are higher in case of men as compared to women. Therefore, it can be said that gender play major role in the pattern and trends of the health and illness.

In number of health care systems it is considered that black and minority ethnic (BME) populations have experienced poorer health and barriers while accessing some health services. Now it is the priority area for population groups to reduce this health gap. In UK, development of different ethnic communities and linguistic groups who have their own traits present big challenge for those who are practicing the health and makers of policy in regards of equal access to health care services.  It must be noted that health policy and general legislation in England impose responsibility on the parliament the Secretary of State for Health, and the Department of Health. As stated by Health Act (2006), secretary of the state is under legal obligation to promote the comprehensive health service which provides care without any charge. Rights related to National Health Service (NHS) care are stated in the constitution of the NHS constitution.

It include the right of person to get care without any discrimination and within the period of some specific time limits in some categories such as in case of emergency and planned care of hospital. The department of health provides the stewardship in case of overall system of health, but it must be noted that responsibility in regard to day to day operations are lie within the separate public body, NHS England.

It is the obligation of NHS in both legal and moral manner to provide services to those people who are in need of those services regardless of their gender, background, age, social community, etc. The labor government in UK wants to implement those practices and policies which are introduced to put the patient at the most important stage and impose more responsibility on service providers to meet the needs of individual by using the system. NHS is the public body and it is obliged under the provisions of the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, which impose obligation on NHS institutions to promote the equality through their activities which includes provision related to services also. This section states the effectiveness of NHS while providing access to health care for all Britons, regardless of their ethnic or religious background?

The King’s Fund is introduced as a new program which mainly investigate the progress made by the NHS institutions in regards of improving the access to health care, and it also  intervenes appear to have worked and what are barriers which affect the progress of the institution.

Minority ethnic groups are those groups which are classified as per the methods used by census which actually asks the people to state from which ethnic group they feel they belong. In last census, almost 92% of the population of UK considered themselves as white and almost 7.9% considered themselves from non-White category. However, these number almost 50% state that they were Asian or Asian British, quarter of them said that they were Black or Black British, and other 15% stated that they were mixed.

These broad non-white categories are emerged on frequent basis and they are quoted on the range of official documents which contain maximum detail about the diversity within minority ethnic groupings. Number of categories such as Black African push those peoples together who are belong from very different culture or ethnic backgrounds. Other categories where cultural differences are included are often quite profound such as religious belief of the people. This can be understood through example, Indian groups which includes Hindu (45%), Sikh (29%), etc. While comparing the White groups versus non-White groups also conceals other ethnic minority groups. This can be understood through example, in 2001 I the category of White there were 691,000 people in Great Britain who were considered themselves as White Irish which was equal to the 1 per cent of the population.

Researchers stated that many inequalities are present in the distribution of health because of social class, gender, and ethnicity. Inequalities in health can be measured by using different factors such as infant deaths, mortality rates, morbidity, disability, and life expectancy.

Research related to socio-economic inequalities in health has long back history in UK. From last 150 years, inequality related to health outcomes have been concern since the early Medical Officer of Health reports. In case of bigger socio economic disadvantaged health outcomes get worse. In the early part of the 20^th century, questions related to occupation are introduced by the British Government in the decennial census. This also allowed the researchers to examine the outcomes of health in social class. In 1911, five-class scheme Registrar General’s Social Class (RGSC) was introduced and extracts of this scheme are used by 2001.

After considering the above factors it can be said that appropriate access to health in case of diverse population require more than the services. Only service provision cannot assure the access to care for all people, regardless of their religion, culture, or ethnic background. This factor and approach is recently considered by NHS, that there is requirement to major re-think of concepts.

It can be said that distribution in terms of health is determined by wide variety of individuals, community and national factors. Various evidences are present which shows that inequality is present in the distribution of health and access to health care at both national and international level. Therefore, access to health care is a supply side issue which indicates the level of service which is offered by the health care systems to the individuals.

It can be concluded that health care access is actually the timely use the services related to personal health for the purpose of achieving the best outcomes in terms of health.

Inequalities are present in the distribution of health because of social class, gender, and ethnicity. Inequalities in health can be measured by using different factors such as infant deaths, mortality rates, morbidity, disability, and life expectancy. Various evidences are present which shows that inequality is present in the distribution of health and access to health care at both national and international level. It can be said that appropriate access to health in case of diverse population require more than the services. Only service provision cannot assure the access to care for all people, regardless of their religion, culture, or ethnic background.

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