Health Issues and Challenges in England

This article discusses the key health issues and challenges in England, including communicable diseases like measles, non-communicable diseases like diabetes, and health issues related to road accidents. It provides an overview of the health system in England and predictions for the future health of the population.

Global Public Health
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Section A: Introduction and an overview of key health issues in the country.......................4
Section B: health system in England, United Kingdom.........................................................7
Section C: Prediction of future health of population in nation utilizing relevant health
indicators................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
The country selected for this project is England. The communicable disease selected is
measles, the non-communicable disease selected is diabetes and the health issue grouped as
injury is road accidents. This project covers health issues and challenges in England and the
information about health system in England. In addition to this, the prediction regarding future
health of population in country is included in the project.
MAIN BODY
Section A: Introduction and an overview of key health issues in the country
England is a country which is part of United Kingdom and share borders with Whales. The
government system is constitutional monarchy in which reigning monarch doesn’t make open
political decisions. In England, the life expectancy at birth in year 2017 to 2019 was around 83.1
year for females and 79.4 years for males. Slight improvements were observed from year 2016 to
2018 of 7.3 Weeks for females and 6.3 weeks for males respectively.
Communicable disease: Measles
Measles one of the infectious diseases prevalent in United Kingdom and it can only be
controlled through vaccination. In the regions with high income like Western Europe, it causes
death in 1 in 5000 cases. However, 1 in 100 will die in the regions with poor income. In year
2016, around 90000 individuals died of measles. However, in year 2017, the death from measles
increased by 20% in the world. Since the vaccine of measles was introduced in United Kingdom
in year 1968, it was estimated by public health England that approx. 20 million measles cases as
well as 4500 deaths have been averted in United Kingdom. In the country, between year 2001
and year 2013, there was sharp increase in measles cases number in United Kingdom. Since
2013, the cases are fallen but the measles rates are still high then they were in 1990s. There was
around 966 laboratory confirm measles cases in year 2018 in England which was nearly four
times more than total number of confirmed cases in year 2017.
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Figure 1: Measles - Annual laboratory confirmed cases in England, 1996-2017
Non communicable disease: Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes is one of the commonly prevalent disease all over the world. It was estimated
that the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in adults who are aged between 20 and 79 years was 387
million in 2014 and it is expected to affect around 592 million individuals by year 2035. In
United Kingdom, more than 1 in 16 individuals has diabetes and there are 3.9 million individuals
living with diabetes. Around 700 individuals are diagnosed with diabetes mellitus in a day which
is equivalent to one individual every 2 minutes. Since year 1996, number of individuals with
diabetes letters in United Kingdom has more than doubled from around 1.4 million to 3.3
million. In year 2014, the diabetes prevalence in in adult population in England is 6.2 %.
Health issue grouped as injury: Road accidents
In Great Britain, around five people die every day on road accidents and many more
seriously injured. In recent years, the road safety record in Britain has stagnated, with number of
deaths remaining widely constant for many years. In year 2018, high number of road fatalities
are experienced by England, accounting for over 85 percent of deaths in United Kingdom
(Smith, 2016). In year 2017, there was also one percent decrease found in number of deaths. The
lowest number of fatalities happen in North East of England, i.e., 52 and highest number has
occurred in south east of England, i.e., 258. In year 2018, 44% (777) of road deaths are
accounted for car users, 456 pedestrian death in year 2018 in United Kingdom, 2% decrease in
year 2017. And 99 cyclists’ death in United Kingdom in 2018.
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Section B: health system in England, United Kingdom
The health system of UK delivers good outcomes of health relative to the health expenditure
level as well as the income inequalities scale. Improvement in life expectancy at birth is at 81.3
years and help showed since year 2011. The disparities in health status of individuals highlight
significant social economic inequalities. The health care system of United Kingdom is funded
from general taxation. A separate National Health Services system in four nations of UK
administer Universal access to comprehensive service package, which is free at the usage point.
UK is a sovereign state which is located off North Western coast. It has population of around
62262000 individuals and the reported gross domestic product is 2.260 trillion Britain pounds.
UK gives Public Health Care to all the residents. At the point of need, healthcare coverages free
and is paid through general taxation. Around 18 percent income tax of citizens goes towards
health care which is around 4.5 % of average income of citizen. 8.4 % of the gross domestic
product of UK is spent on healthcare and the country also has growing private health care
industry.
The National Health Services was established in 1946 and provide healthcare services to all
the people of country for the free. Before this, the care services in United Kingdom was available
only to wealthy people. In 1911, National Insurance Act was presented through David Lloyd
George in which small amount was subtracted from the wages of employees and in turn to this,
they were entitled to get free healthcare services. After second World war, for launching public
health care system, an endeavour was undertaking in which the health care services were
provided free and were finance from Central taxation as well as each individual was eligible for
care. The recent changes in National Health Services involves dissolving of current management
structure of government by year 2014, which would put around 30000 managers out of work.
The government of United Kingdom has sponsored Universal healthcare system name as
National Health Services. It consists of various publicly funded health systems in United
Kingdom. It involves National Health Services Scotland, NHS Wales, NHS England and health
and social care system in Northern Ireland. The healthcare system of United Kingdom is one of
the efficient system in the world as per the study of seven industrialized nations.
Section C: Prediction of future health of population in nation utilizing relevant health indicators
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UK is an autonomous state which comprises island of Great Britain, Island’s North eastern
part many smaller is islands. Currently, the life expectancy rate in England is 83.2 for women
and 79.6 years for men. The population of rising and individuals are living longer. This means
that society is altering and the health of people is also changing with it. It has been found in a
report that, the number of individuals who are aged more than 85 years will hit more than two
million individuals by year 2031. Though, the lives are getting long, health disparities persist
across the nation as well as it stays the case that individuals in rich areas enjoy more 19 years in
good health in comparison to poorest areas. The type 2 diabetes mellitus case that costs the
National Health Services a staggering 8.8 billion pounds to treat each year.
It is expected to increase by 1 million individuals by year 2035. It means that almost 5
million people in England will be there with largely preventable disease that can also cause
Kidney disease, heart disease, sight loss, amputations and stroke. In 25 years, expectancy at birth
in United Kingdom is estimated to rise by 2.4 years to reach 92.6 years for girls and 2.8 years to
reach 90.4 years for boys born in 2043. The people who are aged 65 years in United Kingdom
can expect to live further 22 years for females and 19.9 years for meals, anticipated to increase to
22.2 years for men and 24.2 years for women in year 2043.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that Life expectancy rate at birth
in UK was 83.1 years for women and 79.4 years for men. Measles is an infectious disease which
is prevalent in the country and the deaths from the disease is rise by 20% globally. Diabetes is
one of the most common disease which is prevalent in the country and one in 16 people are
suffering from diabetes today. The health system of United Kingdom is very effective and
deliver effective outcomes of health.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Glasby, J., 2017. Health System Performance Measurement: A UK
Perspective. HealthcarePapers, 17(2), pp.30-33.
Katsarou, A., Gudbjörnsdottir, S., Rawshani, A., Dabelea, D., Bonifacio, E., Anderson, B.J.,
Jacobsen, L.M., Schatz, D.A. and Lernmark, Å., 2017. Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Nature
reviews Disease primers, 3(1), pp.1-17.
Jensen, M.T., Fung, K., Aung, N., Sanghvi, M.M., Chadalavada, S., Paiva, J.M., Khanji, M.Y.,
de Knegt, M.C., Lukaschuk, E., Lee, A.M. and Barutcu, A., 2019. Changes in cardiac
morphology and function in individuals with diabetes mellitus: the UK Biobank
cardiovascular magnetic resonance substudy. Circulation: Cardiovascular
Imaging, 12(9), p.e009476.
Zghebi, S.S., Steinke, D.T., Carr, M.J., Rutter, M.K., Emsley, R.A. and Ashcroft, D.M., 2017.
Examining trends in type 2 diabetes incidence, prevalence and mortality in the UK
between 2004 and 2014. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 19(11), pp.1537-1545.
Miller-Smith, L., Wagner, Á.F. and Lantos, J.D., 2019. Epidemiology of Critical Illness in
Children. In Bioethics in the Pediatric ICU: Ethical Dilemmas Encountered in the Care
of Critically Ill Children (pp. 5-11). Springer, Cham.
Ghebrehewet, S., Thorrington, D., Farmer, S., Kearney, J., Blissett, D., McLeod, H. and Keenan,
A., 2016. The economic cost of measles: healthcare, public health and societal costs of
the 2012–13 outbreak in Merseyside, UK. Vaccine, 34(15), pp.1823-1831.
Smith, A.P., 2016. A UK survey of driving behaviour, fatigue, risk taking and road traffic
accidents. BMJ open, 6(8).
Siman-Tov, M., Radomislensky, I., Israel Trauma Group and Peleg, K., 2017. The casualties
from electric bike and motorized scooter road accidents. Traffic injury prevention, 18(3),
pp.318-323.
Online
http://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/measles
https://www.brake.org.uk/facts-resources/1653-uk-road-casualties
https://mrc.ukri.org/documents/pdf/diabetes-uk-facts-and-stats-june-2015/
http://assets.ce.columbia.edu/pdf/actu/actu-uk.pdf
https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2018/09/11/health-profile-for-england-the-health-of-
england-today-and-into-the-future/
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