What is the long-term plan for the NHS?
Government claims half a million lives could be saved in next decade by focusing on prevention
Prime Minister Theresa May and NHS England boss Simon Stevens will today publish a new long-term plan for the health service that they claim could save an additional 500,000 lives by 2029.
Described as a “blueprint to make the NHS fit for the future”, the long-awaited plan is expected to outline “a future in which genomics, cutting-edge surgery and artificial intelligence” revolutionise the service, and “every area of care is improved in return for the Government’s major funding boost”, says The Guardian.
May announced last year that NHS funding in England would increase from £115bn to £135bn by 2023-24.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
NHS bosses have already confirmed that a third of the additional funding will go on GPs, community care and mental health - part of moves aimed at curbing reliance on hospitals. Pledges on maternity care, mental health, elderly support and earlier detection and prevention of diseases are also expected to be included in the plan.
The renewed focus on prevention “will help prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases, while more than three million people will benefit from new and improved stroke, respiratory and cardiac services”, according to NHS England.
In addition, the Government says that the NHS workforce will be boosted, “with tens of thousands more doctors, nurses and other health professionals”, and waste cut through a series of measures including “ new digital techniques and making back-office savings of more than £700m”.
In an article on The Mail on Sunday, the prime minister wrote: “The launch of the NHS Long Term Plan marks an historic step to secure its future and offers a vision for the service for the next ten years, with a focus on ensuring that every pound is spent in a way that will most benefit patients. This will help relieve pressure on the NHS while providing the basis to transform care with world-class treatments.”
However, May has admitted that extra demand is preventing the NHS from reaching objectives on treating A&E patients within four hours, making two-month cancer diagnoses, and overall 18-week waiting times, reports Sky News.
“We’re slipping against the targets despite the fact we’re actually doing more, the demand is outstripping that,” she told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show.
The PM continued: “What the extra money enables us to do, what the long-term plan enables us to do is actually step back and say, ‘How do we ensure that the NHS continues to be one of the best health services in the world?’”
But the proposals have been condemned by the Labour Party, with shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth claiming that May is trying to “clear up a mess that she has made”.
“The funding isn’t sufficient and the staffing isn’t there,” he added. “The Tories have spent nine years running down the NHS. They have failed to recruit and train the staff desperately needed, leaving our NHS struggling with chronic shortages of over 100,000 staff.”
The Guardian reports that experts and doctors’ leaders have also warned that May and health boss Stevens’ vision risks being reduced to a set of “groundless aspirations” because of the NHS’s deepening staffing crisis, continued cuts to public health and limits to what the extra investment could achieve.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Helene's death toll surpasses 200'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Pig butchering: one of the world's fastest growing scams
In The Spotlight Beijing is cracking down on the crypto con but this has only pushed it worldwide
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Quiz of The Week: 28 September - 4 October
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By The Week Staff Published
-
Chicago is taking drastic measures to reduce its deficit
In the Spotlight The city is expected to face a budget shortfall of nearly $1 billion in 2025
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Is Britain about to 'boil over'?
Today's Big Question A message shared across far-right groups listed more than 30 potential targets for violence in the UK today
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
UK's Starmer slams 'far-right thuggery' at riots
Speed Read The anti-immigrant violence was spurred by false rumors that the suspect in the Southport knife attack was an immigrant
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The Tamils stranded on 'secretive' British island in Indian Ocean
Under the Radar Migrants 'unlawfully detained' since 2021 shipwreck on UK-controlled Diego Garcia, site of important US military base
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Labour's first week in power
In the Spotlight The NHS, prisons and housing are at the top of a to-do list which risks crashing into 'wall of economic reality'
By The Week UK Published
-
Britain's Labour Party wins in a landslide
Speed Read The Conservatives were unseated after 14 years of rule
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Will voter apathy and low turnout blight the election?
Today's Big Question Belief that result is 'foregone conclusion', or that politicians can't be trusted, could exacerbate long-term turnout decline
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published