What the NHS Long Term Plan means for you
The NHS Long Term Plan promises a 'fundamental shift' in how the health service works with patients.
The Plan states that the NHS needs to alter 'how we work alongside patients and individuals to deliver more person-centred care'. This meant recognising the importance of 'what matters to someone' is not just 'what's the matter with someone'.
The biggest funding increases will be seen in GPs, mental health and community care.
NHS England leaders say that the Long Term Plan could save up to 500,000 lives over the next 10 years by focusing on prevention and early detection.
The local bodies that decide how West Sussex’s health services should be funded and run – Sussex and East Surrey Sustainability and Transformation Partnership and West Sussex Coastal, Horsham and Mid Sussex and Crawley Clinical Commissioning Groups and the emerging Integrated Care System for our county - have to draw up a plan by Autumn this year, to say how they will implement changes. They will be informed by surveys and focus groups that local Healthwatch carried out during Spring 2019.
Key priorities within the plan:
- cancer
- mental health
- care for people with two or more chronic medical conditions
- supporting people to age healthily and tackling issues such as dementia
- children’s health
- cardiovascular and respiratory diseases
- learning disability and autism
There will also be a focus on improving the way that people are able to interact with the health service for example, by using digital technologies such as video consultations.
