10 year plan must be developed in partnership with frontline trusts
18 July 2018
- Simon Stevens is interviewed by the Health Service Journal and sets out five key priorities for the NHS in the upcoming ten year NHS plan.
- As well as mental health services and cancer screening, he argues the NHS should have a new focus on cardiovascular disease, including strokes and heart attacks.
- He also calls for a new focus on prevention and inequality in children’s services, as well as reducing national health inequalities.
- Stevens is due to meet with leaders of NHS organisations, sustainability and transformation partnerships and integrated care systems in coming weeks to discuss the plan and its priorities.
Responding to Simon Stevens’ comments in Health Service Journal, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said:
“There is real merit in the ideas for priorities that Simon Stevens has set out.
“He is right to highlight the importance of prevention and health inequalities, though making this happen this will require proper engagement right across government.
“It is important that these ideas are shared as a basis for discussion rather than a pre-determined agenda.
It is important that these ideas are shared as a basis for discussion rather than a pre-determined agenda.
“We all want to achieve the best possible plan that can be delivered for patients.
“This must be done in partnership with frontline trusts and patients to ensure the health service can meet its commitments and therefore give the plan its support and backing.”
“Our recent report showed the scale of the challenge facing the NHS simply to fill the finance and performance gaps that have opened up in recent years.
It is right that we discuss and debate these priorities, but we must be careful not to raise unrealistic expectations.
“Transforming care will also require additional investment, as will the commitments to focus on key clinical priorities.
“It is right that we discuss and debate these priorities, but we must be careful not to raise unrealistic expectations”