After much anticipation, the 10 Year Health Plan for England has been unveiled by the Government.
It sets out how the NHS will be reinvented through what it is calling three radical shifts:
- Hospital to community (more care available on people’s doorstep and from the comfort of your own home; easier access to see a GP and Neighbourhood Health Centres available in every community).
- Analogue to digital (new technology to ‘liberate’ staff from admin; make booking appointments and managing your care as easy as online banking or shopping).
- Sickness to prevention (reach patients earlier, to catch illness before it spreads and prevent it in the first place, by making the healthy choice the easy choice).
The 10 Year Plan promises to deliver thousands more GPs and a transformed NHS App, better dental access with new dentists serving NHS patients first, faster emergency care, with pre-booking through the NHS App or 111, and care closer to home through a new Neighbourhood Health Service.
It pledges “seamless healthcare”, with a single patient record, and care built around people via integrated healthcare teams working in lockstep together in communities.
The Plan makes a commitment for upgraded IT so staff spend more time with patients, and appointment booking and health management on the NHS App, with information flowing effortlessly between secure systems.
It also sets out how the Government will:
- Invest in local health services with personalised care.
- Expand school mental health support.
- Increase access to free and healthier school meals.
- Create the first smoke-free generation.
- Improve the healthiness of food sales.
- Use scientific breakthroughs to develop gene-tailored preventative treatments.
- Invest in life-saving vaccine research.
And there is a promise to set new standards for flexible, modern NHS employment with expanded training opportunities, a reduction in top-down micromanagement and more use of AI to reduce admin burden.
If all of this sounds familiar to you, then cast your mind back a little while to We Need to Talk – a four-week public conversation we launched in October 2024.
This was a major piece of engagement work undertaken by NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB which captured people’s views on NHS priorities in our area – and what the NHS might need to do differently in the future.
The full We Need to Talk feedback report is available here.
We have recognised for a while the NHS is not always providing the care people would expect. And in our case for change, we argued that without potentially radical action, current issues would worsen, and people’s health and care would continue to be impacted.
Almost 4,800 of you took part in the public engagement with 97 per cent of people supporting a view that change is needed in the NHS, and 70 per cent saying some NHS services should be delivered differently or stopped altogether.
You told us your top priorities were emergency care, primary care, and mental health care. Many of you also believed the NHS should be doing more to help people maintain a healthy lifestyle – and prevent ill health.
Issues such as long waiting times, workforce challenges, and the need for better communication and integration between services were highlighted.
There was also strong support for the use of digital technology in healthcare, although concerns about digital exclusion were noted.
These were all themes which have emerged strongly in the 10 Year Plan.
During our public engagement we also captured feedback on the ‘three big shifts’ that are now central pillars in the Government’s ambitions.
On Hospital to Community, you told us you wanted easy access to general health services in a coordinated way, as close to home as possible or digitally. You want to see better use of community assets and resources.
On Analogue to Digital, our research showed that people were times more likely to use digital methods for online banking than for health, but the vast majority of you would be willing to use digital methods. People want the NHS to use integrated digital systems and products to ensure better coordination, communications and efficiency.
On Sickness to Prevention, 16 per cent of people said – unprompted – they would like to see prevention being an area of focus for the NHS. People suggested how the NHS and wider health and care system should increase its health improvement and prevention activities – including those related to the wider determinants of health.
The publication of the 10 Year Plan provides our system with an opportunity to continue the work we have already started, set out in the ICB’s Design for the Future Blueprint in 2024 and aligned to patient priorities subsequently captured during the start of our public conversation last year.
We are already seeing greater use of AI to detect and speed up diagnosis, more availability of wearable technology and virtual wards so people don’t need to be in hospital, and the rollout of Community Diagnostic Centres closer to where our communities are, together with mobile screening units to pick up cancers early.
We have a shared care record, which makes it easier for vital clinical information to pass between GPs and hospital providers, greater awareness of mobile apps for health, Pharmacy First embedded across our area and an ongoing project to pick up cases of cardiovascular disease early.
The ICB and MoD are investing heavily in the flagship Catterick Integrated Care Centre, which will bring a host of NHS and MoD health services together under one roof.
And the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership is also continuing to invest in more joined-up care, such as the Centre of Excellence for Frailty – a project that’s showcased in the 10 Year Plan (page 40).
Case study: Nimbuscare – Improved triage and navigation in York
The York Community Frailty Hub was established in November 2023 to tackle fragmented care for older frail people in the community. It brings together general practice, the acute trust, adult social care,, the ambulance service, and the voluntary sectors into one coordinated system.
The service is made up of 3 key parts: a frailty prevention team, a discharge support team, and a frailty crisis response team. The crisis response team helps reduce avoidable hospital admissions through a dedicated advice and guidance line and rapid multi-disciplinary community response.
In 84% of cases, the York Community Frailty Hub has helped paramedics avoid hospital transfers by providing advice after an ambulance is dispatched, enabling patients to be safely supported in the community rather than in hospital.
The Hub also serves as an alternative to calling 999, offering early advice to frail residents, families, carers and health professionals, and working collaboratively to determine the best course of action to keep people safely at home.
It is clear from the 10 Year Plan there is already a lot of synergy with our ongoing work in Humber and North Yorkshire.
As proud custodians of the NHS, our next challenge is to ensure we are aligning our priorities with the vision of Government, whilst ensuring patients and people always remain at the heart of the change process.