National Health Services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

National Health Services - Essay Example The researcher states that most of the services provided by National Health Services or NHS are free. It is funded by the money raised through taxes. The payments made under National Insurance are also utilized for the funding of its health services. In view of the recent budget cuts announced by the government, there will be an impact on taxation. This will lower the fund availability of the NHS as it is mainly dependent on taxation for discharging free health services. Therefore it is important that it identifies alternative sources of funding or it will face the problem of scarce resources in the future. NHS receives a significant chunk of the total budget allocated for the Department of Health. Out of the  £94 billion amount allocated for this Department the NHS received nearly  £92.5 billion in the year 2008-09. The Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are the principal fund holders of NHS and they distribute funds to the system on a contract basis or at a tariff agreed upon. NHS appl ies charges on prescriptions of adults. Apart from this, they also charge money for dentistry and optician services. Most of the costs of the system are funded by taxes, implying that the contributions from UK taxpayers comprise most of its funding. NHS receives money from dentistry as well as optical services. The dentistry charges on examination at NHS as on April 2009 was  £16.50,  £45.60 for extraction or filling and  £198 was charged for other complex procedures.