The purpose of this essay is to introduce the history of the National Health Service (NHS) and how its formation stems from the early 1600s. It will analyze two current political issues occurring within the NHS, the postcode lottery and NHS reform, examining the positive and negative effects they have had. It will also discuss the implications of regulations within professional practice and how they represent quality of care. Initially established in 1601, the Poor Law Act was introduced by the government in an attempt to provide shelter and food to those most in need, in exchange for forced labor, otherwise called workhouses; “a workhouse where the able-bodied poor are forced to work” (Vocabulary.com, 2014). The poor who could not work were assisted by a parish. The law offered relief to people unable to work, primarily by assisting the elderly or defenseless. The Poor Law Act created the framework for poor relief in England that would last until the next Act was introduced. It was not until 1834 that another scheme, called the Poor Law Amendment Act, was established with similar aims and objectives. They established a Poor Law Commission to oversee the national operation of the system, and parishes were placed into Poor Law unions so that aid could be provided more easily. In 1905, the Liberal government was elected and began drafting laws to benefit health systems. The period 1905-1908 was considered the greatest stage of progress towards the formation of the National Health System. Although the Royal Commission began to amend the Poor Law Act (1834), further progress was halted due to the First World War (1914-1918). The Beveridge Report (1942) was the main point...... half of the paper......I am Your Excellency. Available at: http://www.nice.org.uk/aboutnice/whatwedo/what_we_do.jsp [Accessed 25 April 2014]NHS Choices. (2013). Supervisory body and health authorities: CQC. [Online]. .GOV.UK. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/healthregulators/Pages/carequalitycommission.aspx [Accessed 30 April 2014].NHS Support Federation. (2012). Less fair: zip code lottery. [Online]. Available at: http://www.nhsforsale.info/database/impact-database/less-fair/Less-fair-subpage.html [Accessed 29 April 2014].Weng. (2000). Geographic and social factors are linked to increased morbidity and mortality rates in diabetic patients. Diabet Med.17(8), pp 612-617.Vocabulary.com. (2014). Workhouse. [Online]. Available at: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/workhouse [accessed 30 April 2014]. Equality act (2010) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/ contents