Responding to health and social care secretary Sajid Javid's speech on reform, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson said:

"Trust leaders will welcome the secretary of state's unequivocal support for the NHS in his speech today.

"They will also agree with his strong emphasis on what the NHS stands for: excellent care provided free at the point of use based on clinical need, not ability to pay, funded by general taxation.

"He is right to identify the need to future proof the service to take account of the changing pattern of disease, the ageing population, rising patient expectations and the benefits of new technology and new treatments.

"Trust leaders will also strongly support his rallying call to end patterns of disparity in health outcomes, with a current 20 year gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest in our society. The pandemic strengthened the NHS' resolve to address deeply engrained structural inequalities at play across the health service and wider society. It is only right then, as the NHS looks to the future, that we significantly increase our focus on prevention across both the NHS and wider society, and ensure the ambition to reduce health inequalities is hardwired into plans to transform how the NHS meets the needs of the population.

"Similarly, it was good to hear the secretary of state identify and praise the many exciting innovations trusts are pioneering from new collaborative partnerships to use of new technology, as well as his determination to ensure trusts have freedom to innovate.

"The secretary of state was right to pay tribute to the NHS workforce but the government still needs to set out the concrete action it will take to tackle the 110,000 staff vacancies and provide a sustainable workload for the workforce. These staffing gaps are putting significant pressure on quality of care and patient safety.

"It's vital the government commits to a robust system for long term workforce planning so that the positive future the secretary of state outlined for the NHS today can become a reality."