19 Facts About NHS England

1. NHS England has declined to comment on the specific issue.

2. NHS England saves £300m on drugs with cheaper alternatives.

3. NHS England has offered to pay £500m over five years for access to Orkambi and other drugs in the Vertex pipeline that are expected to be more effective, renewable for a further five years.

4. NHS England is the world's fifth largest employer, an operation so vast that it occupies one in 20 British workers.

5. NHS England was forced to delay the start of its single largest medicines procurement deal—worth almost £1bn over five years—by six months because of the legal action by AbbVie.

6. In 2013, NHS England said it faced a funding gap of £30 billion by the end of the decade, even if government spending kept up in line with inflation.

7. NHS England has five regional teams that support the commissioning of healthcare services for different parts of the country.

8. NHS England leads the National Health Service in England, find out more about what we do.

9. NHS England has delivered huge medical advances and improvements to public health, meaning we can all expect to live longer lives.

10. NHS England provides mental health services free of charge, but normally requires a referral from a GP first.

11. In 2001 the NHS England entered into a licensing deal with Microsoft, ignoring the advice of some of its own IT specialists that had recommended investing in Linux instead.

12. NHS England plays a unique role in the training of new doctors in England, with approximately 8000 places for student doctors each year, all of which are attached to an NHS University Hospital trust.

13. NHS England was born out of a long-held ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth.

14. NHS England estimated that around 160,00 people are infected with hepatitis C in England, and around half are unaware of their infection.

15. NHS England was forced to delay the start of its single largest medicines procurement deal—worth almost £1bn over five years—by six months because of the legal action by AbbVie.

16. NHS England is responsible for commissioning £15.6 billion of specialised services and for dealing with Individual Funding Requests in respect of the specialist services it commissions.

17. NHS England awarded a 4-year contract to Capita to become sole provider of administrative services including payment administration, management of medical records, and eligibility lists for practitioners for GPs, opticians and dentists across the UK in June 2015.

18. NHS England employs around 6,500 staff in 50 sites around England.

19. NHS England is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care.