United Kingdom

From Ganfyd

A political entity, comprising the administrations of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Medicine and healthcare in the UK have since at least 1948 been distinguished from some other countries by a generally available and free at the point of delivery health service funded from general taxation. This was called the National Health Service (NHS) when it was composed of essentially independent organisations throughout the provinces above working with similar aims and methods under a national umbrella.

More recently the umbrella has reversed the natural order of things by showering more and more policies upon what are now essentially independent organisations throughout the provinces above working with similar aims and methods under three national umbrellas called respectively the English NHS, Scottish NHS and Northern Ireland NHS.

Another feature more pronounced in the UK than in much of the world is the gatekeeper role of general practice, which has been declared responsible for the efficiency and cheapness of the service in its initial half century, and in recent years vitiated or abandoned by adding a variety of alternative routes to secondary care. This has formed part of a programme of substantially increased central spending which has resulted in a smaller increase in effectiveness and nearly improved morale.

The NHS has been described within the UK as "the envy of the world".

Government of the UK

There are various tiers of government within the United Kingdom. They include:

• A UK-wide goverment, comprising two "houses of parliament" - the House of Commons, and the House of Lords. Parliament produces laws - "Acts of Parliament".
• Devolved government applies to certain aspects of law and policy-making in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. (Parliament, including members of parliament (MPs) from the devolved administration, makes laws for England. The fact that Scottish (and Welsh and Northern Ireland) MPs make laws for England, while (for matters devolved to the local administration) English MPs have no say in the devolved adminstration, is an oddity of the situation, sometimes referred to as the West Lothian Question.

UK government health departments

Health is a devolved power in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The websites of the relevant departments are:

• Department of Health (England)
• National Assembly for Wales
• NHS Scotland
• Department of Health for Northern Ireland

External links

• They work for you website which lists all MPs, Lords, facilitates identification of the MP for any UK postcode, and has links to parliamentary questions, debates, ministerial statements, and so on.
• Office of Public Sector Information website, where you can download Acts of Parliament, Bills (which may subsequently become Acts of Parliament), and so forth.

References