Last week, the Government published its long-awaited 10-year Plan for the NHS in England. The Plan outlines the Labour Government’s vision for the future of the NHS, following the 2024 investigation by Lord Darzi of all the challenges besieging the NHS. The Plan continues his ‘reform or die’ rhetoric, with the diagnosis that the NHS is broken, but that it can be fixed. The Plan is presented as the roadmap for how this could happen.
The Plan picks up on the themes that have characterised the Government’s health messages to date – regarding the need for a shift from hospital to community care, from analogue to digital, and from treating sickness to prevention. It builds on the Government’s manifesto commitments, with 168 pages of policy proposals also detailing plans relating to structures and operating models, workforce, finances and care quality.
What does it mean for patients?
Patients stand to benefit on a number of fronts, if the Plan comes to fruition. Measures included in the proposals include a return to the family doctor and move away from the 8am scramble for GP appointments, and making GP care more accessible. There is a plan to establish Neighbourhood Health Centres in every community to create ‘one-stop shops’ for patient care in every community. The NHS App will get improved functionality, to help patients access and organise their care more effectively, enabling them to book and manage appointments, get information, and give feedback. Via the App, all patients should be able to take an active role in planning and managing their care through a care plan, and all people with complex needs will have an agreed care plan by 2027 (though alternative means will be available for the those who cannot access apps). Though the delivery of more urgent care in the community, in people’s homes or through Neighbourhood Health Centres, the Plan intends to end hospital outpatients as we know it by 2035.
One of the prominent themes in the Plan is a focus on improving patient experience, including more focus on patient feedback, improved complaints handling and a senior leader to oversee improvements. Patients experience will also be financially prioritised, whereby data on patient experience directly influences payments made to providers.
Other broad themes included in the Plan include some that will impact on patient care, such as the focus on the use of AI to cut staff admin time (thereby enabling them to see more patients) and to support new innovations to improve patient care.
What does the Plan mean for people affected by cardiomyopathy specifically?
Broadly, the Plan does not focus on particular initiatives in specific disease areas – although there are a few exceptions. But there are several aspects of the Plan that seem promising for people affected by cardiomyopathy.
One such aspect is the recurrence of references to genomic medicine. In particular, the Plan outlines an expansion to the NHS Genomics Medicine Service to create a new genomics population health service, in order to identify and alleviate disease risks years before symptoms arise. There is also a promised expansion in genomic testing for inherited causes of major diseases to allow earlier detection and intervention, including cardiovascular disease predisposition. Finally, the Plan outlines an expansion in genomic counselling and support to be available via Neighbourhood Health Services.
The Plan contains a few references to cardiology/heart failure, which is heartening. In particular there is acknowledgement that in chronic heart failure, thousands of lives could be saved by treating people earlier in the pathway. Cardiology is named as one of the priority specialities over the next few years for expanding AI-enabled digital tools.
More broadly the Plan commits to a modern service framework for cardiovascular disease. This reflects the Government’s commitment to reducing premature deaths from heart disease in England by 25 per cent over the next decade.
Will it actually change anything?
The Plan is more focussed on what will be different in future than on how the Plan will be put into practice. In particular, the Plan doesn’t set out implications for resources (money and staff), nor details about timing. Indeed, the Plan has been critiqued as being giving the impression of giving an ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’ impression. Given the backdrop of fiscal limitations, as well as the dissolution of NHS England and reorganisation of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Integrated Care Boards, quite how the Government will manage to get it all over the line remains to be seen.
Next steps for Cardiomyopathy UK
We hope that the plans that will improve patient care will come to fruition. In particular, we want the framework for CVD to deliver for all heart patients, and we hope that the recognition of the need for earlier treatment of people with heart failure will result in significant care improvements. Cardiomyopathy UK’s policy team will have an important role in advocating for ideas laid out in the Plan to translate into meaningful improvements in services for people with cardiomyopathy.