National hospital services critical analysis - Essay Example

National Hospital Services Critical Analysis National Hospital Services was founded in 1948 in United Kingdom (UK) to provide affordable health careto its citizens. Most of UK population seek health care facilities from National Health Services as compared to the small percentage of the population that seek health care facilities form the private hospital that charge very high amounts. A health care facility at National Health Services is offered freely at the point of delivery as they are funded by tax payers' money. Currently, NHS is regarded as the highest employers in Europe as it has employed more that 1.3 people. Managing a large institution like National Hospital Services is not an easy task as it requires structures to be laid down properly in order to delegate the work accordingly at all levels. The organisation is rum by the UK government under the Department of Health to ensure that health care services are offered at all levels. There are some NHS agencies that assists in its management and they include NICE and SIGN that ensure that NHS health services are distributed to all parts of United Kingdom. 1 Since National Health Services are paid for by tax payers' money, they have an added advantage since they will always be having enough money to run the organisation. This strength helps the organisation be able to offer the services to the entire United Kingdom without straining. This is unlike other small organisation which could be will to offer the services to a larger region, but due to financial constrain, they are not in a position to do so. For this case, National Health Services takes advantage of having enough funds to be able to offer their services to every part within United Kingdom. National Health Services is run by the UK government under the Department of Health, and due to this reason, they are in a position to offer better services to the citizen unlike other private hospitals. For this case, they offer their services without discrimination within the region and this make their services more popular than those of the private sector. Due to the fact that they are run by the government, they are in a position to employ competent employees to run the organisation unlike the private hospital that might not be capable or may not afford to hire qualified employees due to financial constrains. This strength has enabled NHS services to continue prevailing in the market due to the fact that they are delivered professionally. 2 The management ensures that they take they services even to a remote area within the region since they are financial capable of opening as many branches as possible. Due to their financial capability, they take advantage of this opportunity and ensure they offer their health care services even to the remotest areas with the region. Many organisations in the world today succeed as a result of ensuring that they distribution of goods and services is diversified in all parts where they are needed and National Health Services is not an exception since it has taken advantage of this opportunity. 3 Although National Health Services are under threat of several other health care units that offer similar services, they continue to prevail in United Kingdom since they offer their services free of charge. The private sector may only be taking a small proportion of the population especially the rich one but most of those who earn low income, always seek their services. Being a government institution, they are in a position to attract competent professional due to the fact that their employment opportunity is on permanent basis. For this case, they are at an advantage of employing professional who want to be employment to be permanent unlike the private sectors whose employment opportunity is on contract basis normally basing it on performance. This strength enables them to create goodwill to both the employees and the citizens at large. 4 The tax payers are always keen on how their money is being spent by the government. For this case, National Health Services, being a government sponsored project, it is always under scrutiny by the tax payers to ensure that their hard earned money that is taxed in utilized in the right way. This kind of strength always ensures that the services delivered by the outlets are of quality since the tax payers will always raise their voice if they are not delivered properly. This is unlike a private health care centre which might be offering poor services resulting to patient not seeking their services from them again. Such a private hospital might end up closing down due to low patient turnover. This would not be the case to National Health Services where their services will continue being of high quality due to pressure from the tax payers. National Health Services due to the fact that it's a government project, their employment terms are favourable and this makes their employment opportunity to be attractive to many. This is an opportunity to the organisation at large and for this case; there is no one time the hospital might not be having enough employees on the basis that they do not want to take their offers. Since National Health Services is a government based project, their services are offered only within the UK. For this case, their services are not affected by international trade regulations and restrictions like a firm that is offering their services worldwide. Their services continue to be offered the same way all year round and this happens to be an opportunity to them to offer quality services since they are not in any way regulated by international trade restriction. National Health Services like any other organisation in the UK, continue to enjoy a favourable political stability of the government. At times, organisation services are interrupted if there is political stability in the country especially during wars in country. For this case, National Health Services have not been interrupted since UK has a very stable government, politically. For this case, they take advantage of this opportunity thereby ensuring their services are distributed to all whenever they are required. 5 At times, the National Health Services is under threat due to the fact that it is a government institution. Many people have got a low attitude toward organisations that are run by the government in the sense that their services might not be of good quality. This perception is normally viewed in this perspective by the rich people who opt to seek for health care services in a private hospital where they pay for it. They have a perception that services that are for free are not of good quality unlike where you pay for them. Although this does not affect their services a lot, but all in all, it is a threat to the organisation at large. Many people usually have a lot of confidence with government institutions. For this case, National Health Services takes this opportunity since it's a government based institution. More and more patients continue to seek their service due to the confidence they have with government organisations. Taxation policy of United Kingdom affects the services delivered by National Health Services. Due to the fact that the institution is run by tax payers' money, if there are low rates of taxation, then it means there is less money to run the institution and therefore they might not offer quality health care services and vice versa. The government goals and objectives in regard to National Health Services is to ensure that people have access to quality health care services and for this case; they bring these services within their reach. For this case, the branches that are to be operated or opened to offer health care services is determined by population distribution. More health care services are operated in densely populated areas than in less densely populated areas. 6 Change of lifestyle does not affect services that are offered by National Health Services. For this case, they are services remain affect even if there is change of life style. For this case, it gives National Health Services an opportunity to have a long-term goal on how well they can offer quality services to the people. At times the turnout at National Health Services outlets might be affected by economic growth of the country. If the economic growth of the country is high, it means that people will be paid competitive salaries and for this case, their have more money to spend on their needs and wants. This may result to them opting to seek health care services at private hospital if previously they were not seeking them there due to financial constrain. The UK government spend a lot of money in research in regard to health care due to the fact that they want to ensure that they offer better quality services to their citizens. They also ensure that obsolete health care equipments are replaced with the modern one. For this case, this is an opportunity they take to offer quality services to people therefore ensuring their health care services continue to prevail in the UK. 7 In implementing changes in the operation of theatre in the National Health Services, the organisation ought to come up with the reason at to why change is required in the theatre and them give necessary support in implementing it. To ensure the change is successful, they have to ensure they have the knowledge of implementing the change and sustain it within in the entire organisation. 8 We can conclude that; although some of the factors affecting health care services offered by National Health Services are considered as opportunity or threat, the organisation ensure that it uses all the available resources and strategies to defend these threats and for the case of opportunity they develop new strategies. Bibliography Conner, D. R. (1993): Managing At the Speed of Change, Random House, London Davidmann, M. 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