The National Health Service (NHS) is an umbrella term used for the publicly funded healthcare system in the United Kingdom. The NHS has been funded through tax since 1948 and was officially opened by the Minister of Health in Manchester. The founding principals were that the services should be universal and free at the point of delivery with the thinking that it is for those who need it rather than those who can pay.
The NHS was created so that everybody living in the United Kingdom would share the burden of paying for healthcare, rather than only the ill or injured having to pay for their health services.
Some of the services of the NHS include seeing a doctor or a nurse at a surgery, getting help and/ or treatment at a hospital if an individual is unwell or is injured, seeing a midwife due to pregnancy, and getting urgent help from the paramedics if there are life threatening problems, as well as being transported to a hospital.
There are hundreds of job roles available throughout the NHS, as well as locum opportunities. For example, an individual can find employment through nursing agency Stroud company, Take 5 Healthcare.
