Government issues nationwide call for NHS reform ideas
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting has urged the public, clinicians, and experts to contribute ideas towards a radical overhaul of the NHS.
Billed as “the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS since its birth”, responses are being collected via a new online platform: https://change.nhs.uk/, which will be live until the beginning of next year.
The public engagement exercise, launched yesterday (21 October), will help shape the government’s 10 Year Health Plan, which is scheduled for publication in spring 2025.
The government has proposed three pillars for reform: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
The first shift ‘from hospital to community’, includes plans for new neighbourhood health centres. These will be closer to homes and communities, with family doctors, district nurses, care workers, physiotherapists, health visitors and mental health specialists under the same roof.
In transforming the NHS from analogue to digital, the government aims to modernise by bringing together a single patient record through the NHS App.
Finally, plans to move from ‘sickness to prevention’, will aim to prevent illnesses before they happen. For example, the government are considering whether smart watches and other wearable tech may offer patients the opportunity to monitor their own health at home.
Bond Solon director of health and social care Zak McNally said: “As the NHS embarks on its most significant reform in decades, legal expertise will play a crucial role in ensuring that healthcare professionals are equipped to navigate the complex regulatory landscape ahead.
“The shift toward community-based care, digital health solutions, and a prevention-first approach brings with it new legal challenges, from data protection and safeguarding patient rights to clinical governance and accountability. Our training has always focused on helping professionals understand and implement evolving legal frameworks, to ensure that they can confidently lead in compliance, risk management, and ethical decision-making.
He added: “As the NHS transforms, we will be paying close attention to the requirements for workforce reskilling and development, especially around digital health technologies, improving care coordination across different healthcare sectors, and community-based care and preventative services. We will be closely monitoring these parts of the consultation so we can ensure our offerings remain not only relevant, but instrumental in helping to deliver the NHS’s vision for a modern, patient-centred healthcare system.”
The consultation follows Lord Ara Darzi’s damning report into the state of the NHS, published in September, in which he concluded the NHS was in a “critical condition”.
Commenting on the launch of the consultation yesterday, Darzi added: “As my recent investigation found, the NHS is in need of urgent and fundamental reform. The 10 Year Health Plan comes at a crucial moment – and by describing the ultimate destination for the health service, it will help improve decision-making in the here and now.”
Author: Hannah Gannagé-Stewart
22 October 2024