Healthcare staff and the general public have been invited to respond to a national ‘engagement exercise’ to help shape the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said today that while the government has ‘a clear plan to fix the health service’, it was ‘only right that we hear from the people who rely on the NHS every day to have their say and shape our plan as we deliver it’.
And health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘Whether you use the NHS or work in it, you see first-hand what’s great, but also what isn’t working. We need your ideas to help turn the NHS around.’
Meanwhile, NHS England (NHSE) chief executive Amanda Pritchard said NHSE would be ‘carrying out the largest ever staff engagement exercise in NHS history and leaving no stone unturned as we seek to harness frontline views, alongside those of patients and the public’.
The engagement online platform is available from today at Change.nhs.uk, and will be live until the start of next year.
The 10-year plan, announced over the summer, will be informed heavily by Lord Darzi’s recent investigation which said increased general practice funding should be a ‘fundamental strategic shift’ for the NHS.
It will be published in spring 2025, and the Government said today that it will be ‘underlined’ by a shift from ‘hospital to community’, with plans to deliver ‘neighbourhood health centres’ where GPs work under the same roof as district nurses, physiotherapists, health visitors and others.
Jonathan Higman, chief executive of NHS Somerset ICB, welcomed the Government’s proposals to engage the public, NHS Staff and experts ‘in the biggest conversation about the NHS since it started’.
‘This year, we have already been engaging the public and our local stakeholders as part of Somerset’s Big Conversation and will be announcing the results of this engagement later this year.
‘Health secretary Wes Streeting has committed to three ‘strategic shifts’ as part of new 10-Year Plan for the NHS, which includes, moving care from ‘hospital to community’, from analogue to digital and from treatment to prevention. This is in line with everything we are already focussing on achieving in Somerset.
‘To complement engagement carried out nationally, from mid-November NHS Somerset will work with system partners through Our Somerset (our integrated care system) to co-ordinate local engagement with staff, stakeholders and our local communities.’
Deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery said: ‘The 10-year plan presents a critical opportunity to create a ‘next generation’ health service.
‘The focus on creating a ‘digital’ NHS, prevention and public health and ensuring patients are cared for in the right setting are central to this.
‘Trust leaders will work with the government to get to grips with the challenges facing the health and social care and to deliver improvements. They know the NHS needs to work differently and go further and faster to improve care for patients.
‘However, this must go hand in hand with sustainable funding and investment, particularly for capital, an end to chronic workforce shortages and more support to meet growing demand, not just in hospitals but across mental health, community, and ambulance services, too.
‘We must also recognise the close relationship between health and social care, and the need for reform and investment in both the short and long term.’
The government also committed today to creating a ‘patient passport’ which brings together all patient information on the NHS App, as well as bringing in new laws to support data sharing.
