The UK`s National Health Service Is The Largest Healthcare Service Provider

National Health Service was the largest competitor in the healthcare services market in 2018 with a 2.48% share of the market. It is the UK’s publically funded health system created under the UK’s National Health Service Act. It has more than 1.5 million employees. NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales were established in the year 1948. National Health Service is estimated to have generated revenues of $166.4 billion for the financial year 2018 from the healthcare services market, a 1.4% increase from the previous year.

The NHS hospitals are involved in providing extensive health care services and outpatient care. The primary services of NHS include antenatal screening, routine screenings, and treatment for long-term conditions, which include transplants, emergency treatment, and end-of-life care.

NHS’s growth strategy aims at making treatment more feasible and continuously helping people with plans aiming at improving treatment. The NHS Long Term Plan was initiated to decrease the number of hospital appointments by 30%. As a result of this, patients with arthritis and other related conditions received treatment through GPs (General Physicians), without visiting hospitals. This initiative by NHS enables patients to book appointments with specialists without actually visiting their clinics, making the treatment process more convenient.

According to the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey conducted in 2018 by The King’s Fund among the British public, with regards to National Health Service (NHS), about 70% of respondents were satisfied with outpatient services and 63% of people were satisfied with inpatient services and GP services.

According to the same survey, 58% of people were satisfied with the NHS’s dentistry services, and 53% of people were satisfied with accident and emergency (A&E) services. However, only 26% of people were satisfied with the social care services.

The global healthcare services market is highly fragmented, with large number of small players. The top ten competitors in the market made up to 4.90% of the total market in 2018. This small share is attributed to the local operations of the healthcare service providers. This is expected to slightly change during the forecast period as players are trying to expand their presence in different geographies through acquisitions and mergers. National Health Service was the largest competitor with 2.48% of the market. Other major players in the market include Kaiser Permanente, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, Community Health Systems, Inc., DaVita Inc., Universal Health Services, Inc., Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings.