The National Health Service (NHS)

The National Health Service (NHS) is the name commonly used to refer to the publicly-funded health care service in the United Kingdom excluding Northern Ireland. In England the name National Health Service is used without further qualification whereas the services in Scotland and Wales are known as NHS Scotland and NHS Wales respectively. Each system operates independently, and is funded by, and politically accountable to the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government.

Because England has no devolved government the NHS in England is accountable to the UK government. The service in Northern Ireland was established along similar lines to the NHS in the other parts of the UK but never used the title NHS. Today it is known as Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland and is accountable to the Northern Ireland Executive.

One aspect of patient care beyond the hospital's direct control has been bed-blockers which refers to patients who have been declared fit for discharge but for some reason or other they are not able to return to their normal home. Often they are awaiting placement in some nursing home or other form of residential care. This strains hospital resources, through both increased costs and longer waiting times for other patients. Fines for social services departments did succeed in reducing bed-blocking, but the numbers are creeping up again.

NHS in England

While the NHS in England is funded centrally by the government, care is provided by more than 400 independent regional healthcare organizations known as Trusts. The Trusts are responsible for different services in various regions: acute Trusts, ambulance Trusts, mental health Trusts, and primary care Trusts.

Public-private partnership (PPP)

Public-private partnership (PPP) describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies. These schemes are sometimes referred to as PPP, P3 or P3.

A typical PPP example would be a hospital building financed and constructed by a private developer and then leased to the hospital authority. The private developer then acts as landlord, providing housekeeping and other non medical services while the hospital itself provides medical services.

Early problems
Because of the focus on avoiding increases in public debt, many private infrastructure projects in the early 1990s involved provision of services at substantially higher cost than could have been achieved under the standard model of public procurement. The central problem was that private investors demanded and received a rate of return that was higher than the government’s bond rate, even though most or all of the income risk associated with the project was borne by the public sector.

One response to these negative findings was the development of formal procedures for the assessment of PPPs in which the central focus was on "value for money" rather than reductions in debt. The underlying framework was one in which value for money was achieved by an appropriate allocation of risk. These assessment procedures were incorporated in the private finance initiative and its Australian counterparts from the late 1990s onwards.

Although the general view that governments should seek "value for money" has been widely accepted, there have been continuing disputes over whether the guidelines designed to achieve these goals are appropriate, and whether they have been correctly applied in particular cases. Much of the discussion has been based on debates over the UK private finance initiative.

Is the System of Social Welfare Fair?

What types of benefits are available to different categories of people?
Retirement pension
Widow's pension
Maternity pay
Child benefit
Unemployment benefit
Family credit
Invalidity pension
Mobility allowance
Income support
Housing benefit scheme

The average size of pension in Russia

What benefits are the citizens of Russia have?
Women have a right to a pension at the age of 55 and men at 60.
Women who leave work to have a baby have a right to ask for a maternity allowance from the government.
There are allowances paid to elderly people. Retired people can get a salary or a wage and still receive their pension in full.
A wide range of other payments exists. For example, a child allowance is a small monthly payment for each child, usually paid to mothers.
People who do not work have the right to a monthly payment, too. Scholarships are paid to young people, college and higher school students, if they do not pay fees (money) for their education.
People who are disabled can receive invalidity pension.
Widows can get payments for their husbands who died.