NHS 10-Year Plan: what do people want to see?
As part of the Government’s public consultation that was held to develop the NHS 10-Year Plan, Healthwatch Brent, Healthwatch Kensington and Chelsea, and Healthwatch Westminster delivered a series of public events. These sessions welcomed residents from diverse demographic backgrounds to share their thoughts on the future direction of the NHS.
Based on the findings from our local event as well as other events that were delivered across the country, Healthwatch England has set out four priorities for the NHS 10-Year Plan for patients, their families, and their carers.
1. Putting patients first
The Government’s plan focuses on three shifts to help repair the NHS over the next decade:
- Moving more care from hospitals to communities
- Making better use of technology, shifting from an analogue to a digital NHS
- Focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it
This includes a choice of where to be treated and options for digital and offline communications and services from NHS teams.
Choice of care
Under the NHS Constitution, people have the right to make decisions about their care, have preferences met and choose where they receive healthcare. People’s choice is often not just a matter of personal preference but essential to access due to communication requirements, affordability, or work or caring commitments.
However, many people have expressed that NHS decisions often seem to prioritise the needs of healthcare teams over those of patients. While it is essential for policies and reforms to support NHS staff, this should not come at the cost of patients being able to access the care they need in a way that works for them.
2. Getting the basics right
People have expressed to us that they find it difficult to understand and navigate an often complicated health system. This includes people being passed between teams who lack clarity about who does what, and what support people may need to access their care.
Disabled people and those with sensory impairments often face greater challenges in contacting healthcare teams in ways that suit their needs. They also often receive information they can’t access because their communication requirements are not properly recorded in health systems.
We’ve also heard stories of people whose NHS letters arrived after the scheduled appointment or being delivered to the wrong address, and instances where referrals were lost in the system. Inaccurate and missing information in people’s medical records can lead to delays in receiving care and pose significant risks to patient safety.
3. Tackling health inequalities
People who already face inequalities are more likely to be affected by problems in the NHS.
Some examples of inequalities that affect access to healthcare include:
- People from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled people, unpaid carers, and women are more likely to face longer waits for and worse experiences of planned hospital care.
- People on lower incomes are less confident in accessing daytime GP appointments. The cost of services such as dentists or associated expenses with booking appointments such as the cost of a phone call, internet access, or travel costs are factors that can deter them from accessing healthcare.
- Neurodiverse people are more likely to report a negative experience of getting a referral from general practice to community and secondary care.
- Autistic people, visually impaired people, deaf people, those with dyslexia, and people relying on translators face persistent challenges receiving inaccessible communication from NHS teams.
All these examples increase the ack of trust many communities feel in health and care services, including some people being hesitant to give feedback on experiences and engage with services.
4. Measuring people’s experience of care
Reducing waiting times for planned NHS care and in A&E departments has been a key focus for NHS leaders in recent years. Although this is important to patients, their experience of waiting, comfort, choice of care, and communication with services are just as key.
Current performance measures focus on hospital care and tend to measure numbers through the door and length of wait. However, measuring four-hour waits in A&E or 18-week waits for elective appointments tells us nothing about people’s experiences while waiting, including the quality of non-clinical support they receive and their experiences across multiple pathways and services.
Find out more about the priorities that Healthwatch England has outlined for the 10-Year Health Plan.
