Government launches the biggest national conversation about NHS future

The public engagement exercise will help shape the government’s 10 Year Health Plan to build an NHS fit for the future

The Labour government has launched the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS since its birth, calling on the entire country to share their experiences of the health service.

The feedback will be used to shape the government’s 10 Year Health Plan to fix the “broken” health service and deliver its mission to build an NHS fit for the future.

Members of the public, as well as NHS staff and experts, are invited to share their experiences, views and ideas for the future of NHS via a new online platform that goes live today.

The Change NHS online platform, which will be live until the start of next year, is also available via the NHS App.

The public engagement exercise will focus on three shifts in healthcare - hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “My mum worked for the NHS, my sister worked for the NHS and my wife still works for the NHS - so I know first-hand how difficult it has been for staff and for patients battling against a broken system for over a decade.”

“But it’s time to roll up our sleeves and fix it.”

He urged the public to help in restoring the NHS, stating, “We have a clear plan to fix the health service, but it’s only right that we hear from the people who rely on the NHS every day to have their say and shape our plan as we deliver it.”

"Together we can build a healthcare system that puts patients first and delivers the care that everyone deserves.

“We have a huge opportunity to put the NHS back on its feet. So, let’s be the generation that took the NHS from the worst crisis in its history and made it fit for the future.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting will unveil the new online platform at a health centre in east London today, where he will also meet with the chief executive of the London Ambulance Service before the first engagement event begins.

Streeting said: “When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, the NHS saved my life, as it has for so many people across our country.”

“We all owe the NHS a debt of gratitude for a moment in our lives when it was there for us, when we needed it. Now we have a chance to repay that debt.”

Streeting remarked that the NHS is currently going through the worst crisis in its history, noting that “while the NHS is broken, it’s not beaten and together, we can fix it.”

“Whether you use the NHS or work in it, you see first-hand what’s great, but also what isn’t working. We need your ideas to help turn the NHS around.”

“In order to save the things we love about the NHS, we need to change it. Our 10 Year Health Plan will transform the NHS to make it fit for the future, and it will have patients’ and staff’s fingerprints all over it,” he added, urging everyone to visit the online platform to help build a health service fit for the future.

NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard highlighted that NHS staff are facing an unprecedented number of challenges, including record demand for care, growing pressures from an ageing population, and rising levels of multiple long-term illnesses as well as patients with more complex needs.

In addition, she noted that NHS staff are often hampered by working in crumbling buildings with outdated tech, resulting in increasing wait times for patients.

“So, it is vital the health service innovates and adapts - as it has always done throughout its 76-year history - to design and deliver an NHS fit for the future,” she said.

The start of this national conversation on the future of the NHS builds on Lord Ara Darzi’s independent report, which concluded that the NHS is in a ‘critical condition.”

Lord Darzi said: “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.

The government aims to transition healthcare from hospital settings to community by establishing new neighbourhood health centres that will be closer to homes and communities.

As part of its effort to modernize the NHS, it plans to shift from analogue to digital bringing together a single patient record, summarising patient health information, test results, and letters in one place, through the NHS App.

Additionally, by shifting the focus from sickness to prevention, the government intends to shorten the amount of time people spend in ill health and prevent illnesses before they occur.