Should the NHS be privatised? Potential merits and demerits of privatisation of the National Health Service

Résumé ou Introduction

In 1948, the post-war Labour government in the United Kingdom (UK) initiated the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS initiative brought together the hospitals, nurses, dentists, clinicians and pharmacists under one organisation to deliver free public medical services at various points of delivery.

Since then, the provision of medical care has been entirely free and primarily funded from taxation, as an act of faith by the British administration. Since then also, the NHS has become one of the central issues defining UK politics, where some argue that healthcare would be safer and more efficient if managed by the government as opposed to privatisation provisions.

As a consequence, the contemporary NHS has become a different system, where both the public and the private sector provide healthcare.

Typically, privatisation is used to describe the process or the act of transferring an industry from the public division, often overseen by the government, to the private segment. Thus, the aim of this paper is to critically evaluate the statement "The NHS Should Be Privatised," using an argumentative approach and taking into account economic as well as social factors.