The 10 year plan “Fit for the Future” has finally been released on July of this year.
First off, I want to start by saying that there’s a fine line between promises and implementing changes in what’s become a reality of the NHS standards of healthcare.
The National Health Service (NHS) is at a historic crossroads. Lord Darzi’s Investigation revealed the sheer extent of its current failings, concluding the NHS was in ‘critical condition’. He set out in stark terms that this government’s inheritance is an NHS where:
- many cannot get a GP or dental appointment
- waiting lists for hospital and community care’ have ballooned
- staff are demoralised and demotivated?
- outcomes on major killers like cancer lag behind other countries.
These points mentioned above are a fact! 😂There’s not much changes that have happened so far and there should be a change! Waiting for being treated feels like neglectful healthcare for many.
“We need to shift to provide continuous, accessible and integrated care…”
Ahhh… I love this philosophy but it’s easier said than done really!
“digitally by default, in a patient’s home if possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, in a hospital if necessary.”
Doctors in this day and age now rely on diagnostic tools more than ever to make a diagnosis. Though this can be effective in remote areas it could be challenging to avail transportation facilities to reach there. The elderly who need urgent care but are not of serious nature (requiring invasive surgery or emergency treatment) could potentially benefit from this. But lifelong illness and or disability does heavily depend on hospital care settings.
“end the disgraceful spectacle of corridor care and restore the NHS constitutional standard of 92% of patients beginning elective treatment within 18 weeks”
I do strongly wish to put a stop to this but I think it would take more than 18 weeks to put a complete end to corridor care. We need more hospitals and doctors to fix this!
“free up hospitals to prioritise safe deployment of Al and harness new technology to bring the very best of cutting-edge care to all patients. All hospitals will be fully Al-enabled within the lifetime of this Plan”
AI offering medical advise or even aid for that matter is a subjective experience. Again any form of technology that depends on an input and an output shouldn’t be systematically reviewed and treated based off its predictions. It takes years to learn all the medical literature in all the corners of the universe. There’s still many books on diseases and illnesses that can solely be available from books rather than the internet. We do usually forget that you can’t form any physical bonds with the patients and there’s hidden portion of the iceberg that we as doctors cannot see, it’s amusing to imagine AI of all things being capable of such a thing!😂We also need a strong electrical grid that cannot short-circuit which isn’t the most ideal reliance.
Let’s say we do have an abundance of power and a robust AI tools to figure out the patient’s signs, symptoms and diseases linked to them, we need to train doctors on how to use the AI software.
“build ‘HealthStore’ to enable patients to access approved digital tools to manage or treat their conditions, enabling innovative businesses to work more collaboratively with the NHS and regulators… introduce single sign on for staff and scale the use of technology like Al scribes to liberate staff from their current burden of bureaucracy and administration – freeing up time to care and to focus on the patient.”
Hmm, I would like more context.
“expand mental health support teams in schools and colleges – and provide additional support for children and young people’s mental health through Young
Futures Hubs”
This is genius.
“increase uptake of human papillomavirus
(HPV) vaccinations among young people who have left school, to support our ultimate aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040. We will fully roll out lung cancer screening for those with a history of smoking
• create a new genomics population health service, accessible to all, by the end of the decade. We will implement universal newborn genomic testing and population-based polygenic risk scoring alongside other emerging diagnostic tools, enabling early identification and intervention for individuals at high risk of developing common diseases.”
I love these ideas! I do hope they get implemented though!
“make ICBs the strategic commissioners of local healthcare services. We will build ICB capability, and close commissioning support units”
Including this! But would like for more context!
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) will take on the NHS planning functions previously held by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and will absorb some planning roles from NHS England, including planning functions for many aspects of services for people affected by neurological conditions, such as:
- Paediatric and adult neuropsychiatry
- Complex rehabilitation for ‘patients with highly complex needs’ (including neurorehabilitation)
- Adult neurology
- Adult neurophysiology
- Adult rare brain and central nervous cancers
- Paediatric neuroscience
- Paediatric neurorehabilitation
- Neurosurgery
- Neuroradiology
More on ICS, ICBs and ICPs:
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/integrated-care-systems-explained
“support the Generation Study as it sequences the genomes of 100,000 newborn babies.
This study will inform our longer-term ambition to make genomic sequencing at birth universal”
It’s brilliant but it’s subjective to which research institutions and what their long-term goal is…
“In the longer-term, move to a new NHS financial model, where money will increasingly follow patients through their lifetime. Providers will be rewarded based on how well they improve outcomes for each individual, as well as how well they involve people in the design of their care, not solely on whether they provide episodic instances of care on demand.”
I’m in doubts on this one.
For anyone interested in having a read:
References:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50527179
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