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The NHS Explained: How the Health System in England Really Works

Get a detailed understanding of the NHS: its inner workings, past and future challenges, and how the whole system fits together, with this online course from the King’s Fund.

Duration

4 weeks

Weekly study

2 hours

100% online

How it works

Unlimited subscription

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Explore the past, present, and future of the NHS in England

The National Health Service (NHS) is a source of British national pride placed above the BBC, the British Olympic team, and the Royal Family. It affects the lives of millions of people.

But have you ever wondered how many people it takes to keep a nation healthy? Or how much money it costs to run the NHS? Or why hospital waiting times are always in the headlines?

This course will help you understand what keeps the fifth largest employer in the world running. You’ll explore the challenges facing the system, and how to ensure the NHS is fit for the future.

Learn about the history of the NHS and how it functions today

You’ll start the course by delving into the origin story of the national health service. You’ll investigate the health system in England pre-NHS, and see how the service has evolved and developed since then.

You’ll also examine the NHS’s structure, funding, and workforce, to get a fuller picture of how the system functions today.

Investigate current and future challenges facing the NHS

Once you’ve understood how the NHS delivers its services, you’ll dig deeper into the many challenges the system faces. You’ll discuss ways of measuring NHS performance, and what resources are needed to keep the nation healthy.

By the end of the four weeks, you’ll have a deep understanding of the workings of the NHS in England, and a sense of how the system could evolve in the coming years.

Week 1
What is the NHS about?
- What do you know about the NHS?
  What springs to mind when you think of the NHS? It means lots of different things to different people. And how much do you know about the NHS?
- How has the NHS developed over time?
  How has the NHS changed over the past 70 years and what are the key milestones that have led to the health system we have in England now?
- The building blocks of the NHS: how is the system structured?
  The NHS is made up of many different services, agencies and government bodies. How do they all fit together to deliver health care to the population and what do all these different organisations do?
Week 2
How does the NHS work?
- How does funding flow through the NHS?
  How does NHS funding flow from the Treasury to local services? How much does health care cost and how much do we spend on the NHS in England?
- How are decisions made in the NHS?
  Once money has reached the NHS, who decides how it's spent? What factors have to be taken into consideration when planning services?
- Who works in the NHS?
  How many people does it take to keep the NHS running and to keep the nation healthy? Who makes up the 1.4 million people that staff the NHS in England? And what challenges face the future of the workforce?
- How do we make sure that the NHS is performing well?
  Funding, staffing and planning are all essential activities that keep the NHS running. But how do we know that the NHS is performing well?
Week 3
How is the NHS doing?
- Measuring how the NHS is performing
  How do we know how the NHS is doing? Measuring the performance of the system and services is one way of understanding how the NHS is doing.
- Measuring the quality of care
  Another way we can understand how the NHS is doing is to examine the quality of care delivered and patient outcomes.
- Measuring what patients think
  Patient satisfaction and experience provide another insight into how the NHS is performing.
Week 4
The future of the NHS
- The next ten years
  What are the factors that will influence change in the NHS over the next decade? Recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and the new Health and Social Care Act are two things that will affect many different aspects of the NHS.
- Integration and collaboration
  The structure of the NHS is evolving to meet the challenges of the future. This activity will explore what the future structure of the NHS might look like.
- Technology and data
  New technologies and the internet have revolutionised our everyday lives but the NHS has not kept pace with some of these changes. What is the potential for technology to transform the way in which health care is delivered?
- The public and the NHS
  As society changes, the NHS needs to change in response in order to ensure that it is fit for the future. Does part of this change need to encompass a shift in our relationship with the NHS?
- Finishing up
  You've finished the course and by now you should have a broad understanding of the NHS and how it works. What's next?