History of the National Health Service History of the National Health Service The name National Health Service (NHS) is used to refer to the four public health services of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, individually or collectively, though only England's NHS officially has this title. For details of the history of each National Health Service, particularly since 1999, see: The NHS was the first universal health care system established anywhere in the world. A leaflet was sent to every household in June 1948 which explained that The NHS in Scotland was established as a separate entity with its own legislation, the National Health Service (Scotland)
National Health Service health service on behalf of another. For example, Northern Ireland has no high-security psychiatric hospitals and depends on hospitals in Great Britain, routinely at Carstairs hospital in Scotland for male patients and Rampton Secure Hospital in England for female patients. Similarly, patients in North Wales use specialist facilities in Manchester and Liverpool which are much closer than facilities in Cardiff, and more routine services at the Countess of Chester Hospital. There have been issues about cross-border payments. Taken together, the four National Health Services in 2015–16 employed around 1.6 million people with a combined budget of £136.7 billion. In 2014