United Kingdom Health System

All English residents are automatically entitled to free public health care through the National Health Service, including hospital, physician, and mental health care. The National Health Service budget is funded primarily through general taxation.

  Britain’s National Health Service: one model, four systems

There are longstanding concerns that an under-supply of staff is compromising care with little idea about how to rectify matters. In the past, the NHS has filled vacancies by recruiting staff from abroad. In 2014, 28% of doctors working in the UK were trained abroad, compared with an average of just 9% across EU countries. About 13% of nurses were foreign trained, compared with 2% elsewhere.

 How the British health care crisis translates to America

Seven years of austerity and rising demand for services is taking a mounting toll on patient care. Waiting times are rising, access to some services is being restricted and access to family doctors, mental health and community services are under huge pressure.

 The U.K. Created A Health Care System To End Class Privilege. America Must Do The Same

What we need now is not the money but the political will to hold fast to an uncompromising demand: the demand for a single public program with comprehensive coverage for all U.S. residents that is free at the point of service, as well as a jobs training and placement assistance program for those currently employed by the private insurance industry. Finally, we should avoid the language of moralism and charity. Medicare for All will greatly improve the lives of the vast majority of the population, but it will not be won simply because it is the right thing to do. It will be won because a strong working-class movement empowers clear-thinking people like Aneurin Bevan to fight the ruling elites.

Is the NHS the world's best healthcare system?

Reasons to celebrate the institution that has changed beyond all recognition since 1948. Nothing inspires national pride quite like the National Health Service. More than two-thirds of respondents in a recent poll said they considered the establishment of the institution, which turns 70 this week, to be Britain’s greatest achievement.

NHS70: How Has Technology Changed Our Healthcare?

The NHS has come a long way since those early days after the Second World War. From discovering DNA to performing life-changing surgeries, technology has played a central role in the service's evolution.

Anyone Skeptical Of National Health Insurance Should Read This Short Story About How Much Better It Is

Anyway, any American who is skeptical about national health insurance but has an open mind should read this testimonial from another American who is currently living in a country with national heath insurance — Britain.

Big Data Helps UK National Health Service Lower Costs, Improve Treatments

NHS leaders realized early on that they were collecting a gold mine of data that could change the course of treatment for cancers and other life-threatening diseases, says Nina Monckton, chief insight officer of the NHS Business Services Authority, which provides business support services to tens of thousands of UK healthcare providers under contract to the NHS.

Britain's National Health Service Isn't A World Beater

The NHS isn’t bad at everything. It does provide universal coverage, though not particularly quick, modern, effective, or efficient coverage, and it is better at treating some not very common diseases than many other systems. And it enjoys broad public support. Despite improvements since the 2000s, the NHS is still lagging behind the health systems of most comparable countries on most health outcome measures for which robust data is available.”

God Bless America — But Give Me The British NHS Any Day

Perhaps the most chilling failure in America — still, even after Obamacare — is the healthcare system. So to be back in the UK for a few days and to hear people yet again talking about destroying or diminishing the National Health Service is simply agonizing. Just as I’ve advised Americans in the past to look elsewhere to learn lessons in success, I would urge the British to look to America to learn lessons in failure.

How 70 years of the UK’s beloved National Health Service transformed Brits’ lives

The free health care system, funded through taxpayer money, is a jewel in Britain’s crown. In fact, it makes British people more proud (pdf) than both the signing of the Magna Carta and the country’s defiance of Adolf Hitler during World War II.

Inside Britain's Mental Health Crisis

Budget cuts have left NHS mental health units running beyond capacity. National bed shortages mean people are shunted all over the country for hospital care. Kids are waiting over two years for treatment. What's happening?

N.H.S. Overwhelmed in Britain, Leaving Patients to Wait

“With the N.H.S. coming under pressure as never before, we are asking patients and the public to use the health service responsibly,” she said, “to help ensure that care is readily available for everyone who needs it.”

NHS Ransomware Cyber-Attack Was Preventable

Security upgrades for the National Health Service’s information technology systems have lagged behind for years.

The first step towards fixing the UK’s health care system is admitting it’s broken

Britain’s health care system has been broken for quite some time, but it’s not beyond repair. Like many other nations, Britons see America’s health care system as the antithesis of good care. In comparison to the cost and complication of the US system, the UK’s national health service looks dreamy: No matter who you are, where you’re from, or what your profession, you simply get the care you need—for free.

The NHS is under threat. Only a new model of care will save it

The government’s refusal to embrace prevention rather than treatment as the way forward is putting Britain’s greatest post-war achievement in jeopardy.

U.K.’s National Health Service Is in Trouble

Long waits, lack of beds, dearth of doctors plague beloved system, prompting calls for overhaul.

UK Marks 70th Birthday of Health Service With Pride, Worry

The NHS principle of free medical treatment, funded by taxation, retains wide support. But it has been challenged by rising life expectancy, increasing patient expectations and the vagaries of government funding.

What British Doctors and Nurses Are Saying About the UK Healthcare Crisis

"Morale in our hospital is just non-existent. The doctors ask the nursing staff to do things and the nurses don't do them because they don't have enough time. Then the doctors get annoyed at the nurses and the nurses get annoyed at the doctors. It's just created a horrible environment to work in. Everybody is stressed. I'm very unhappy and I'm not convinced I want to be a doctor any more."

What It’s Like to Be a Patient With the N.H.S.

Britain’s National Health Service turns 70 this year, amid warnings of an existential crisis. At the end of last year, we interviewed several staff members to ask them what they hoped and feared for the system’s future. Now, readers tell us about their and their families’ experiences with the N.H.S. Here are their stories, edited for length and clarity.