Littleover Community School

BBC Young Reporter @ LCS

Is your health being gambled with?

By: Umaiza

Everyday many families are devastated to find out one of their loved ones has cancer or any other disease. There are cures and medicines for these diseases but they are inaccessible for many families, due to distance and also cost, as they are too expensive and private healthcare is not an option.

There is the continual debate about ‘the postcode lottery’. This refers to the organisation of NHS funds whereby local authorities are being given greater control over the way they spend their money in their community. The benefit of this being that health care professionals who know their area the best can allocate money where is most needed. However, this creates inequality in some services such as mental health and social care. Therefore, this system has been criticised as its not providing equal care for all regardless of geography.

The NHS, National Healthcare Services, is accessible for all UK residents. Currently, 64.6 million people are with the NHS in the UK. The NHS covers everything from treatments for long-term condition to transplants. With the exception of some charges, such as dental services, optical services and prescriptions the NHS provides free treatment.

The NHS employs over 1.5 million people making it one of the world’s largest workforces. The NHS in England, by far, is the biggest part of the NHS, supporting a population of 54.3 million and employing 1.2 million. Of the 1.2 million employees, 150,273 are clinically qualified staff, 40,584 are General Practitioners (GP), 314,966 are nurses and health visitors, 18,862 are ambulance staff and 111,127 are hospital and community health service medical and dental staff.

Although the NHS provides treatment for almost everything, some treatments are inaccessible. More than 50% of local health bodies in England are not performing well enough on dementia, 71% are classed as ‘needs improvement’ for diabetes care and 92% need improving for learning disabilities. Therefore there is a lot to be done in making the NHS suitable for all.