Understanding the NHS
What is the NHS?
The National Health Service (NHS) is the UK's medical care system and the largest employers of healthcare and medical professionals.
Understanding the NHS
To effectively treat patients across the UK, the NHS is divided into various district acute trusts. There are currently over 300 hospital and mental health trusts, each governed by its own trust board. It is the responsibility of the trust board to manage the budgets and ensure that every hospital implements high quality care.
In addition, there are over 100 primary care trusts in the UK which comprises of GPs, NHS walk-in centres, dentist, opticians and pharmacists. Acute trusts and primary care trusts work inter-dependently with PCTs managing a large number of outpatient visits and treatments on behalf of hospitals. However to manage the demand of medical treatments, a majority of PCTs will commission many services from acute trusts.
To enhance and promote workforce development, Strategic Health Authorities (SHA) have been established to manage regional areas that cover numerous trusts.