Integrated care board (ICBs) across England are marking the NHS’ 75th anniversary, with chief executives sharing the wishes for the NHS, and ICS representatives attending celebrations at Westminster Abbey.
Held from 11am today (5 July), the ceremony stands as the main event alongside a series of NHS 75 Park Runs and a ‘Back to the Floor’ initiative which sees leaders return to their first frontline NHS role.
To mark the occasion, Healthcare Leader asked ICB chief executives their hopes for the NHS going forward.
Staff across general practice and in commissioning roles from Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICS will be attending the ceremony at Westminster Abbey today.
And attendees from Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICS include an emergency planning manager from its ICB and the director of nursing at Weston General Hospital.
Taking to Glastonbury festival last week, Bristol’s former poet laureate Miles Chambers performed a poem commemorating the NHS alognside Somerset ICS staff including a GP at Glastonbury Surgery, Dr Rebecca Hall.
Dr Hall, said: ‘We had an absolute blast at Glastonbury Festivals. I hadn’t expected to be so moved by the wonderful poem. You could have heard a pin drop amongst the 140,000 odd crowd at the Pyramid Stage as the poem was read out and the film was played. I felt the whole crowd was with us and the loud cheers following the performance made me feel so proud to be part of the NHS. Breath-taking.’
NHS England announced today, in line with the anniversary, that it would be expanding its virtual wards programme to reach children in every region of England this month.
A week before the anniversary, NHS England published its long-term workforce plan, which is set to increase the number of GP training places will by 50% to 6,000 by 2031, with the number of medical school training places to double to 15,000.
As part of that, ICBs will lead in developing local apprenticeship strategies.
