The government’s forthcoming 10 Year Health Plan for the NHS is the latest in a long line of plans to transform healthcare over the years.  

But what do we know so far, what is the Plan likely to include, and what difference will it make?

What’s the background?

The government first confirmed its plans for the development of a new 10 Year Health Plan in October 2024, when it launched Change NHS to hear people’s views, experiences, and ideas to help shape the future of the NHS in England. This came off the back of the independent Lord Darzi review, which was a thorough investigation into the challenges the health service faces, commissioned by the Labour government shortly after it came to power.

Change NHS was billed as the biggest ever conversation about the future of the NHS in England and, when it closed its surveys at the end of April, it had received more than 220,000 contributions.

This followed months of engagement across England to hear from the public, patients and staff, which culminated in the Change NHS National Summit held in early April that brought together hundreds of members of the public and health and care staff who had taken part in earlier events across England.

Speaking at the summit, the Health Secretary Wes Streeting insisted that the plan would be ‘a shared plan as a country. Not just to get the NHS back on its feet but to make sure it’s fit for the future’.

The Plan is now being finalised ahead of a proposed publication date in June.  

What was the feedback?

Although actual details are a bit vague, the Change NHS website said the response from the public indicated people were proud of the NHS and believed it was one of the best things about the country. They liked the fact that it was a universal service, available to everyone, free at point of use, and celebrated the dedicated and hardworking staff and the fact the NHS is always there when you really need it.

What they didn’t like, predictably, was difficulty getting appointments, long wait times in A&E, and a lack of joined up care, leading to calls for easier and quicker access to appointments (especially GP), better co-ordination between different health and care services, greater investment in staff recruitment and retention, and reducing waste and inefficiency across the NHS.

Reducing waiting times is the principal focus of the work we do as a company. Achieving this doesn’t just mean people are seen more quickly for treatment, it has a much wider benefit than that – hastening the discharge of patients to get people home quicker, lessening the strain on staff working incredibly hard in difficult conditions, and making the whole service far more efficient. It matters in so many ways.

The engagement carried out by the Change NHS team suggested that access to GPs, A&E, dentistry and routine operations were the top priorities, with participants also highlighting that a focus on prevention is needed to improve the health of the population and ensure that the NHS is still around for future generations.

Meanwhile, staff who responded to the surveys said they had pride in the NHS, their colleagues, and making a real difference for patients and their families.

However, they complained about challenges such as staff shortages, inefficient systems, poor working conditions, lack of resources, and the disconnect between management and frontline staff.

“While no-one is doubting the length and breadth of this latest consultation, and it’s promising to see the government and the NHS involving people from so many areas, it’s vitally important that this isn’t yet another false dawn,” our Managing Director, Karina Malhotra, commented.

“We have, of course, been here before – we’ve seen big, bold, transformative plans in the past that haven’t really come to anything. From our perspective, what would really make a difference is a laser-like focus on waiting times improvement, as this is the vehicle through which so much of the above can be achieved.”

What is the Plan likely to include?

At its heart, the Plan will focus on the three key ‘shifts’ that Streeting, Kier Starmer et al have talked about plenty before and since coming to power, namely: switching care from hospitals to communities, moving from analogue to digital, and focusing on prevention not just treatment. The three shifts are explained in more detail here.

It seems likely there will also be a heavy focus on waiting lists, building better links between hospitals and social care, modernising hospitals and healthcare facilities, plugging staff shortages and reforming NHS management.  

Reducing health disparities and stopping people from getting ill in the first place – by looking widely at the social determinants of health – are also likely to feature strongly.

What else needs to be considered?

So many of the issues with the NHS boil down to long waiting times and inefficient patient pathways.

However, for too long, there have been only short-term solutions and sticking-plasters to this long-term, persistent problem – which affects everything from A&E and primary care to elective care, mental health, social care and prevention.

“We look forward to seeing the full plan, which will hopefully be released in June, and playing our part in creating an NHS that is truly fit for the future. For this to happen, waiting times improvement, elective care recovery and cutting manual tasks to free up productivity must all be front and centre,” Karina added.  

“The Plan must also have real legs and buy-in this time – we simply can’t afford to have more pledges that look great on paper but aren’t actioned in reality.”

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