The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England. The NHS provides healthcare to anyone normally resident in the UK with most services free at the point of use for the patient though there are charges associated with eye tests, dental care, prescriptions and many aspects of personal care.

The NHS provides the majority of healthcare in England, including primary care, in-patient care, long-term healthcare, ophthalmology and dentistry. The National Health Service Act 1946 came into effect on 5 July 1948. Private health care has continued parallel to the NHS, paid for largely by private insurance, but it is used by less than 8% of the population, and generally as a top-up to NHS services. Recently the private sector has been increasingly used to increase NHS capacity despite a large proportion of the public opposing such involvement.

The NHS is the world's largest health service and the world's fourth-largest employer; only the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Indian Railways and Wal-Mart employ more people directly.

The NHS is largely funded from general taxation (including a proportion from National Insurance payments). The NHS in England is controlled by the UK government through the Department of Health, headed by the Secretary of State for Health (Health Secretary), who sits in the British Cabinet, which takes political responsibility for the service. The DoH controls ten Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), which oversee all NHS operations, particularly the Primary Care Trusts, in their area. These are coterminous the nine Government Office Regions for the most part, with the South East region split into South East Coast and South Central SHAs. Most of the expenditure of The Department of Health (£98.6 billion in 2008-9) is spent on the NHS.

There are several types of NHS trust:

• Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), which administer primary care and public health. On 1 October 2006 the number of PCTs was reduced from 303 to 152 in an attempt to bring services closer together and cut costs. These oversee 29,000 GPs and 18,000 NHS dentists. In addition, they commission acute services from other NHS Trusts and the private sector, provide primary care in their locations, and oversee such matters as primary and secondary prevention, vaccination administration and control of epidemics. PCTs control 80 per cent of the total NHS budget.
• NHS Hospital Trusts. 290 organisations administer hospitals, treatment centres and specialist care in about 1,600 NHS hospitals (many trusts maintain between 2 and 8 different hospital sites).
• NHS Ambulance Services Trusts.
• NHS Care Trusts.
• NHS Mental Health Services Trusts.
• NHS Direct Trust provides telephone and online support services.