What are the most important factors that influence the National Health Essay

What are the most important factors that influence the National Health Service in Modern Britain - Essay Example This paper analyses the influential factors that have shaped the structural aspects of the National Health Service in modern Britain. With a divisive background where state owned hospitals, the general practitioners and community as well as the domiciliary healthcare based services functioned as independent statutory entities, a new approach towards a modernized system with regards to the provision of comprehensive and co-ordinated healthcare services was fast needed to replace the old order (Markwell, 2009). The conception of the term â€Å"modern† denotes an era (1960s onwards) characterised by the adoption of a holistic frame of reference where traditional strategies were/are critically rethought over to capture the ever expanding consumer interest in a range of complementary healthcare approaches in the wake of a stronger wave of counter-culture (Daunton and Rieger, 2001). With industrialisation at hand, technology and political dynamics have played fundamental roles in directing policy shifts in conformity with a more demanding and ballooning populace. According to the Guillebaud Report, the changing trends in health issues and illness, the need for harmonious working relationships between the general practitioners and public hospitals towards more efficient preventive mechanisms, and the need for adequate healthcare provision to the growing number of the elderly in their own homes were issues of concern that needed to be addressed if the country was indeed serious in meeting every justifiable healthcare demand of its citizenry (Markwell, 2009). In fact, the impact of the growing numbers of the aging population on the NHS is indeed tremendous; the average public expenditure for retired households has nearly doubled that for non-retired households. The 2007/08 average value of NHS services for retired and non-retired population stood at  £5,200 and  £2,800 respectively; a clear indication of direct influence on