What we know about the consultation on the NHS's future

A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London. Picture date: Wednesday January 18, 2023.
The government is launching a major consultation on the future of the NHS, promising to put patients and staff at the heart of its 10-year health plan. (PA/Alamy)

The government has launched a major consultation on the future of the NHS, promising to put patients and staff at the heart of its 10-year health plan.

Billed as “the biggest national conversation about the future of the NHS since its birth”, members of the public will be able to share their views online via change.NHS.uk until the start of next year.

The consultation is part of the government’s plans to transform the NHS into a “neighbourhood health service”, shifting more care from hospitals to communities.

The plan, expected to be published in spring 2025, will also see greater use of data and technology, with easier sharing of patient data, saving an estimated 140,000 hours of staff time every year.

Speaking at its launch, health secretary Wes Streeting said the NHS was going through what is "objectively the worst crisis in its history", while Sir Keir Starmer described the consultation as being "really important conversation to create that NHS of the future, a moment in our history.”.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer described the consultation as being "really important conversation to create that NHS of the future, a moment in our history.”

While in opposition, Labour pledged to build “an NHS fit for the future”, with a greater emphasis on preventing ill-health, shifting care from hospitals to community and harnessing the latest technology to improve care.

Some areas of the plan were already outlined before the launch and included the creation of new neighbourhood health centres, which are intended to be based closer to people’s homes than their nearest hospital and enable them to see GPs, district nurses, care workers and other medical professionals in the same building.

The Department for Health and Social Care said this would stop patients “having to go from pillar to post” and enable them to be treated for minor injuries “without having to wait for hours in overstretched hospitals”.

New laws are set to be introduced to make patient records available across all NHS hospitals, GP surgeries and ambulance services in England.

And plans for a “single patient record” have been unveiled, which will summarise all of a patient’s health information, test results and letters in the NHS App, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

The plan was also expected to include greater roles for wearable technology to help people monitor their health, with suggests that smartwatches would help people with conditions like heart disease and diabetes monitor their blood pressure and glucose levels, and be warned about spikes.

Speaking at its launch, Streeting said: “The NHS is going through what is objectively the worst crisis in its history, whether it’s people struggling to get access to their GP, dialling 999 and an ambulance not arriving in time, turning up to A&E departments and waiting far too long, sometimes on trolleys in corridors, or going through the ordeal of knowing that you’re waiting for a diagnosis that could be the difference between life and death.

“Worse still, receiving a prognosis that amounts to a death sentence that could have been avoided because the NHS didn’t reach you in time. That is, I’m afraid, the daily reality in the NHS today.”

The health secretary urged NHS staff and patients to take part in the “national conversation” by sharing their views online via change.nhs.uk until the start of next year.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer added: “I know the last 14 years have been really, really hard. We have had austerity, we haven’t had the right money and resources.

“We have had a reorganisation of the NHS that made no sense and made things worse, then had the burden of COVID and everything that followed after that. Frankly, you deserve a lot better than that.”

Addressing suggestions that his government should have taken swift action rather than a consultation, Starmer said: “We want to hear from you and from as wide a number of people as possible, both in the NHS and people who are using the NHS, because this needs to be the once-in-a-generation opportunity for you to put your fingerprints on the future – literally to craft the service that you are working for.

“This is a really important conversation to create that NHS of the future, a moment in our history.”

He said that in decades to come he wanted people to look back and say that his government “made sure the NHS is fit for the next 75 years”.

There have been suggestions that the NHS budget may need to rise by 3%-4% in order to deliver the plans, though the government has dismissed them as inaccurate. However, some experts have suggested such an increase is needed if Labour is to deliver on its promises.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) welcomed plans to shift treatment from hospitals to communities, but general secretary Nicola Ranger said the NHS “simply does not have the nursing numbers to deliver it”.

She said: “We were the only NHS profession to reject the government’s pay award. Reforms must come with the investment needed to turn around nursing.”

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, also said more funding would be needed to deliver the government’s plan.

She said: “Trust leaders will work with the government to get to grips with the challenges facing health and social care and to deliver improvements. They know the NHS needs to work differently and go further and faster to improve care for patients.

“However, this must go hand-in-hand with sustainable funding and investment, particularly for capital, an end to chronic workforce shortages and more support to meet growing demand, not just in hospitals but across mental health, community and ambulance services too.”

Shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake said the opposition would support efforts to improve NHS productivity, saying: “We welcome the reforms. The public sector needs to be more productive, it needs to be more efficient, and so we’ll support the Labour government where we can. We want it to succeed.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “We know that primary care services across the country are at the brink of collapse due to the Conservative Party’s disgraceful neglect, with patients paying the price.

“Whether it is sky-high GP waiting lists, endless ambulance response times, or a failure to diagnose cancer in time, none of these issues can be fixed without fixing the crisis in social care. That is why the Liberal Democrats will make sure that social care is part of the debate and push for a cross-party solution to this crisis.”

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM  OCTOBER 08, 2024: Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting arrives in Downing Street to attend the weekly Cabinet meeting in London, United Kingdom on October 08, 2024. (Photo credit should read Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Wes Streeting urged the public to 'help us build a health service fit for the future'. (Getty)