Over the coming weeks, health service staff, experts and the general public are encouraged to contribute to the ‘biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS since its birth’
The new government has unveiled a 10-year vision for “transforming the NHS from analogue to digital”, including providing all individuals with a comprehensive patient record available via the NHS App.
Health secretary Wes Streeting this week unveiled the Labour administration’s plan for the UK’s health system over the coming decade. According to the government, the vision is built around “three big shifts in healthcare: hospital to community; analogue to digital; [and] sickness to prevention”.
Among the flagship initiatives of the move towards digital provision will be a programme of work aimed at “bringing together a single patient record, summarising patient health information, test results, and letters in one place, through the NHS App”.
The government said that this will give individuals greater control over their records, as well as giving frontline staff “the full picture of patients’ health”.
In addition to which: “New laws are set to be introduced to make NHS patient health records available across all NHS trusts, GP surgeries and ambulance services in England – speeding up patient care, reducing repeat medical tests and minimising medication errors.”
Alongside the legal and operational updates, the government has also pledged that, as part of its NHS reforms, “systems will be able to share data more easily, saving NHS staff an estimated 140,000 hours” each year.
The intention to drive the NHS from ‘hospital to community’ provision is centred on plans to create “neighbourhood health centres” around the country, while the shift from ‘sickness to prevention’ is another area in which technology will play a key role.
The government said that its reforms in this regard will include efforts to “explore the opportunities smart watches and other wearable tech may offer patients… [to] monitor their own health from the comfort of their own home”.
Before embarking on this transformation, the Labour administration has instigated what it hopes will be “the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS since its birth”.
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This discussion will be held principally via a specially created website – dubbed Change NHS – which can also be accessed by the NHS App. The government is encouraging health-service staff, sector experts and members of the public to contribute to the feedback-gathering exercise.
Streeting said: “Today the NHS is going through the worst crisis in its history. But while the NHS is broken, it’s not beaten. Together, we can fix it. 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. In order to save the things we love about the NHS, we need to change it. Our 10 Year Health Plan will transform the NHS to make it fit for the future, and it will have patients’ and staff’s fingerprints all over it. I urge everyone to go to change.nhs.uk today and help us build a health service fit for the future.”
The health secretary added that taking part in the national conversation offers a “chance to repay [the] debt” owed by everyone in the UK for the care provided by the health service – in the case of Streeting this came “when I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, [and] the NHS saved my life, as it has for so many people across our country”.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard added: “NHS staff are facing an unprecedented number of challenges – with record demand for care, alongside growing pressures from an ageing population, rising levels of multiple long-term illnesses and patients with more complex needs. And they are often hampered by working in crumbling buildings with outdated tech, meaning too many patients are waiting too long for care they need. So, it is vital the health service innovates and adapts – as it has always done throughout its 76-year history – to design and deliver an NHS fit for the future.”
She added: “The 10 Year Health Plan is a chance to make the best practice, normal practice across the country. So, we will 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, to ensure this happens. It is your experiences – good, bad and sometimes frustrating – that we need to help shape this once in a generation opportunity, so please get involved!”
The announcement of the new administration’s long-term plan comes a month after it published a major review of the health service – commissioned by Streeting shortly after the election and conducted by Labour peer Lord Darzi – which found that “the last decade was a missed opportunity” to adopt transformative technologies.
