First impressions of the 10-Year Health Plan

The government has, at last, published its 10-year Health Plan,¹ which is full of aspiration and ideas — many of which have appeared in previous plans. The speedy review undertaken by Lord D'Arzi, last year, has set the tone for much of the 10-Year Health Plan.² His report highlighted a great litany of issues with the NHS, some of which had been building for many years. He painted a bleak picture of the NHS — the system, he said, is in crisis. However, he also acknowledged that the problem was much broader than just the health service and included health inequalities, which are influenced by social, economic and environmental factors — such as income, housing and jobs. This has set the background for the identification of the solutions, which are outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan. Engagement with patients, staff and many stakeholders, since the general election, will have been fast and furious for the Plan to lay out so many ideas.

At the heart of the Plan is the three shifts: moving care into the community, changing from analogue to digital and shifting from treating sickness to prevention. In addition, there are sections on structures and operating models, workforce (and we expect another paper on Workforce later this year), care quality and the finances of healthcare.

Probably the first impression one has is of the shift from hospitals into the creation of a Neighbourhood Health Service — moving some of the historically hospital-based services into the community — including diagnostics, post-operative care and rehabilitation. Neighbourhood teams composed of a number of professionals — such as nurses, doctors, social care workers, pharmacists, health visitors, palliative care staff and paramedics — will work from central health centres, starting with places where healthy life expectancy is lowest. The hubs will be designed to be a one-stop shop for patient care and are expected to work at least twelve hours a day and six days a week.