The NHS 10-year plan is an opportunity to transform our nation’s health and wealth

Read about Professor Geeta Nargund’s idea for a National Health Innovation Service in her piece for Reaction, published on 25 June, here:

https://www.reaction.life/p/the-nhs-10-year-plan-is-an-opportunity

Following the release of the 10-year plan on 3 July, Professor Nargund said:

“I welcome the vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service outlined in the NHS 10-Year Plan published today. The NHS has never been a truly national service because of regional funding discrepancies. This new approach prioritises communities, bringing care to people’s doors and tailoring it to the needs of the local population. It gives us the best chance of creating a national health service, not a regional sickness service.

As a Lead Consultant in the NHS for nearly 30 years, I welcome the focus on community care, which provides one-stop diagnosis and care, freeing up hospitals to deal with more complex cases, provide specialist advice and carry out surgery. This will end the bottlenecks that have blighted secondary and tertiary care. To make this plan work, we will need patient notes across all NHS services to be linked digitally, and this should be a priority.

The plan will put prevention at the forefront of healthcare and is an opportunity to promote good health, not simply treat sickness. We need a joined-up approach that includes health education in schools and a change in how a new generation of health professionals are taught. In order to train thousands more GPs, the DHSC will need to work directly with medical schools to ensure that adequate clinical placements are available locally for medical students.

I am encouraged by the emphasis on incentivising medical professionals to help patients return to work; the link between sickness and economic inactivity, and the social deprivation that causes poor-health, must be at the heart of the reform agenda because better health is linked to economic prosperity.

However, we also need to see evidence that women’s health hubs will be prioritised: physical spaces that provide a one-step diagnosis and meet the demands of disadvantaged and minority communities, who find it most difficult to access healthcare. Our research highlights a clear gender health divide and a crisis of confidence amongst many women in the care they receive from the NHS. We will be failing to address the health of our nation unless we improve the currently inferior health outcomes experienced by 51% of the population.

The 10-Year Plan includes plenty of good ideas about encouraging innovation. However, I would like us to go even further and create a National Health Innovation Service within the NHS. We are currently losing entrepreneurs and innovators because bureaucracy and time constraints stifle new ideas.

I am delighted to see a number of reforms I have been calling for, and look forward to collaborating with the government to transform the health and wellbeing of all communities across our nation.”