National Health Service

"NHS" redirects here. For other uses, see NHS (disambiguation).
For the individual national healthcare services, see National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern Ireland).

Logos of the National Health Service
Logo of the NHS used in England
Logo of the NHS in England[a][1]
Logo of the health service in Northern Ireland
Logo of HSC in Northern Ireland
Logo of the NHS in Scotland
Logo of NHS Scotland
Logo of the NHS in Wales
Logo of NHS Wales

The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom, comprising the NHS in England, NHS Scotland and NHS Wales. Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland was created separately and is often locally referred to as "the NHS".[2] The original three systems were established in 1948 (NHS Wales/GIG Cymru was founded in 1969) as part of major social reforms following the Second World War. The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery—a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay.[3] Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, provided without charge for residents of the United Kingdom apart from dental treatment and optical care.[4] In England, NHS patients have to pay prescription charges; some, such as those aged over 60, or those on certain state benefits, are exempt.[5]

Taken together, the four services in 2015–16 employed around 1.6 million people with a combined budget of £136.7 billion.[6] In 2024, the total health sector workforce across the United Kingdom was 1,499,368 making it the seventh largest employer and second largest non-military public organisation in the world.[7][8][9][10]

When purchasing consumables such as medications, the four healthcare services have significant market power that influences the global price, typically keeping prices lower.[11] A small number of products are procured jointly through contracts shared between services.[12] Several other countries either copy the United Kingdom's model or directly rely on Britain's assessments for their own decisions on state-financed drug reimbursements.[13]


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  1. ^ "NHS Identity Guidelines | NHS logo". www.england.nhs.uk. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Health funding in Northern Ireland – Northern Ireland Affairs Committee – House of Commons".
  3. ^ Choices, NHS. "The principles and values of the NHS in England". www.nhs.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  4. ^ "NHS entitlements: migrant health guide – Detailed guidance". UK Government. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  5. ^ "Who can get free prescriptions". NHS. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  6. ^ "10 truths about Britain's health service". Guardian. 18 January 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  7. ^ NHS Workforce Statistics - January 2024
  8. ^ Cowper, Andy (23 May 2016). "Visible and valued: the way forward for the NHS's hidden army". Health Service Journal. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  9. ^ Triggle, Nick (24 May 2018). "10 charts that show why the NHS is in trouble". Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  10. ^ Tombs, Robert (2014). The English and Their History. Vintage Books. p. 864.
  11. ^ "The UK has much to fear from a US trade agreement". www.newstatesman.com. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  12. ^ "An overview of NHS Procurement of Medicines and Pharmaceutical Products and Services for acute care in the United Kingdom" (PDF). www.sps.nhs.uk/. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  13. ^ "US takes aim at the UK's National Health Service". POLITICO. 4 June 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.