National Health Service
Publicly-funded healthcare system in England
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| 2025 | NHS England continues to develop and implement climate adaptation strategies, including using the Strategic Health Asset Planning and Evaluation (SHAPE) tool to map local climate risks and develop emergency response plans. |
| February 2025 | Waiting lists dropped from 6.28 million to 6.24 million, marking the fourth consecutive monthly reduction in waiting list size. |
| September 2024 | Around 6.3 million patients were on the NHS waiting list in England, with over 3.1 million waiting over 18 weeks and almost 249,300 waiting over 12 months. |
| April 1 2024 | NHS introduces a new Sight Test Fee of £23.53 in England, with 13.1 million NHS sight tests conducted in the UK during this period. |
| December 2022 | NHS Providers reported 133,000 NHS vacancies, highlighting ongoing staffing challenges. |
| December 2022 | Over 7 million people were on the hospital waiting list in England, representing 1 in 8 English people, the largest number since record-keeping began. |
| November 2022 | 37,837 patients waited over 12 hours for hospital admission, representing a 255% increase from 2021 and a 3,303% increase from November 2019. |
| November 2022 | A survey by Ipsos and the Health Foundation revealed that only 8% of people surveyed in England thought the government's plans for the NHS were appropriate. |
| February 2022 | Sajid Javid set ambitious digital transformation targets for NHS, including 90% of trusts having electronic patient record systems by end of 2023 and 75% of adults downloading the NHS App by March 2024. |
| December 31 2021 | NHS England reported 99,000 vacancies, including shortages of 39,000 nurses, 1,400 anesthetists, 1,900 radiologists, and 2,500 GPs. |
| April 2021 | All Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are integrated into Integrated Care Systems, transforming the local healthcare commissioning structure. |
| March 2021 | Department of Health recommended a 1% pay rise for NHS staff, which was heavily criticized by unions and the Labour Party. At year-end, 99,000 vacancies existed in the English NHS. |
| January 14 2021 | Microsoft's additional support for Windows 7 ended, allowing the migration to Windows 10 to be completed. |
| January 14 2021 | Microsoft extended additional support for Windows 7, allowing NHS to complete migration to Windows 10. |
| 2020 | Discovered that most of the 1.38 million NHS computers were still using Windows 7, despite the operating system's age. |
| 2020 | British Medical Association (BMA) research exposed NHS employees' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 81% of respondents feeling partly or not at all protected during the third wave, and highlighting significant government unpreparedness and NHS underfunding. |
| January 2020 | Long-term spending plan voted for, including a proposed 2.1% pay rise for NHS workers, though later considered non-legally binding. |
| 2019 | Number of patients waiting over 12 months for consultant-led elective care drops to under 2,000, a dramatic reduction from over 200,000 in the 2000s. |
| April 2019 | New cost recovery rates established: £725 for outpatient treatment, £891 per day for inpatient treatment, and £219 per ambulance journey. |
| 2018 | Patient waiting list increases to 4 million in England. |
| 2018 | The total number of patients on NHS waiting lists reaches 4 million, doubling from the 2008 figure. |
| 2018 | Medical school places set to increase by 25%, aimed at expanding the healthcare workforce and addressing potential staffing needs in the National Health Service. |
| 2018 | NHS announced abandonment of 'NHS Choices' name, rebranding to 'NHS website' and launching the NHS app. |
| October 2018 | England recorded 542,435 emergency hospital admissions, a 5.8% increase from October 2017, reflecting growing healthcare demands. |
| June 2018 | Prime Minister Theresa May announced extra NHS funding ahead of its 70th Anniversary, promising an average real terms increase of 3.4% annually, reaching £20.5 billion extra by 2023/24. |
| 2017 | The NHS ceased funding homeopathic medicines. |
| 2017 | NHS Improvement reported a staff shortage of 93,000, including 10,000 doctors and 37,000 nurses. |
| 2017 | NHS funding increased by 1.3%, while healthcare demand rose by 5%, highlighting increasing financial strain on the healthcare system. |
| 2017 | NHS doctors required to disclose earnings from private practice. Nursing and midwifery posts reached a record high of 34,260 unfilled positions. |
| September 2017 | Reached highest recorded level of unfilled nursing and midwifery posts in England, with 34,260 vacancies. |
| 2016 | An Ipsos MORI survey found that the NHS topped the list of 'things that makes us most proud to be British' at 48%. |
| 2016 | Sustainability and transformation plans were produced to address the National Health Service's financial problems, involving potential service reductions, ward closures, and hospital service consolidations. |
| 2016 | Robert Francis conducted an independent review revealing a problematic culture of whistleblowing in the NHS, where staff felt unable to raise concerns about care standards due to fear and potential negative consequences. |
| 2016 | Neonatal mortality increased from 2.6 to 2.7 deaths per 1,000 births, and physical assaults on NHS staff rose to 56,435 incidents. |
| 2015 | NHS spending on the private sector rises to £8.7 billion, nearly doubling from 2009-10 levels, indicating a significant expansion of private sector involvement in healthcare services. |
| 2015 | Conclusion of the Nicholson challenge, which aimed to achieve £20 billion in savings across the NHS service. |
| April 1 2015 | NHS Pension Scheme changes to an average-salary defined-benefit scheme for most NHS staff and GPs. |
| January 2015 | The King's Fund releases a report analyzing the 2012 Coalition Government reforms, concluding that while marketization had increased, claims of mass privatization were exaggerated. |
| 2014 | The Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation produce a comprehensive report comparing NHS performance across the four UK countries since devolution, highlighting minimal differences in healthcare outcomes. |
| 2014 | The number of NHS dental patients increased after the previous decline. |
| 2014 | Changes in the Immigration Act introduced new fee structures that contributed to NHS funding. |
| 2013 | The Department of Health and Social Care had a budget of £110 billion, predominantly allocated to funding the NHS healthcare services. |
| April 2013 | Health and Social Care Act 2012 came into effect, giving GP-led groups responsibility for commissioning local NHS services. Primary care trusts (PCTs) began to be replaced by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). |
| 2012 | Public Health England's Neurology Intelligence Network conducts a report on hospital outpatient data, revealing significant variations in neurology service access across different clinical commissioning groups. |
| 2012 | NHS England launched the NHS Apps Library, featuring clinician-reviewed healthcare applications. |
| 2012 | Coalition Government implements healthcare reforms that increase marketization of NHS services. |
| 2012 | Health and Social Care Act 2012 passed, which would significantly reshape NHS service commissioning and management. |
| March 2012 | Health reform bill became law with a government majority of 88, after more than 1,000 amendments in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The reforms shifted power to GPs and patients, moving £60-£80 billion to clinical commissioning groups for service commissioning. |
| 2011 | Beginning of a period of population growth in England, with population increasing by about 6% by 2018, leading to increased health demand. |
| December 31 2011 | Wales scrapped car park charges in hospitals, further differentiating from the English NHS parking fee policy. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article National Health Service (England), which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.