New Era for the NHS...?

[maliafawn]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-launches-new-era-for-nhs-with-easier-care-in-neighbourhoods

• Prime Minister launches government’s 10 Year Health Plan to bring the NHS closer to home
• Neighbourhood Health Services to be rolled out across the country, bringing diagnostics, mental health, post-op, rehab, and nursing to people’s doorsteps
• Neighbourhood health centres will house services under one roof, open at evenings and weekends
• Plan for Change will rebuild the NHS to train thousands more family doctors, transform hospital outpatient appointments, and provide personalised care plans for complex needs

Millions of patients will be treated and cared for closer to their home by new teams of health professionals, Prime Minister Keir Starmer will set out today, as the Government’s Plan for Change delivers a brand-new era for the NHS and delivers one of the most seismic shifts in care in the history of the health service.
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New health centres will house the neighbourhood teams, which will eventually be open 12 hours a day, six days a week within local communities. They will not only bring historically hospital-based services into the community - diagnostics, post-operative care, and rehab - but will also offer services like debt advice, employment support and stop smoking or weight management, all of which will help tackle issues which we know affect people’s health.

First impressions?

What like the polyclinics everyone hated??

I feel it sounds like such a massive service theres no hope of it actually working as intended, and will take longer than 10 years to implement. However, its decent in theory.

Given the amount of critique the NHS gets on here i thought more people would be interested, so a semi shameless bump....

What's the point? Just use the premises they have i.e hospitals for longer hours.

Its states it will be outside of hospitals, however, where these premises will be and how they are obtaining them isnt mentioned.

If it's fully funded and helps keep people out of hospital it will be a good thing

As someone who has been working in a team in the community for the past 11 years(the team has been going for 20) who’s aim is to treat people at home and prevent hospital admissions by treating minor illness and injuries, and home IV antibiotics, We also have physios, OT’s, falls car, out of hours palliative care care.
All I can see is that they would move us into existing walk in centres…and out of hours GPs and that would be our base.

Yes hospitals are busy…..community services are busy too….. that’s including the district nurses and teams like ours!
There is already a ‘diagnostic centre’ open near us as well to relieve hospital appointments/scans and outpatient appointments.

We have also had voluntary severance scheme for clinical and non clinical staff and our nurses have got it….there’s no jobs…..no jobs for our students….wards have closed and staff are being redeployed and if they can’t get a job they will be let go…..

What is proposed isn’t a new thing! But the NHS needs a massive overhaul not just shifting people about!

This is the key bit. We need change NOW. We haven't got time for them to fanny around building new premises. (And how much will that cost?!). It feels like kicking the can down the road if we have to wait for them to develop new infrastructure. I really hope that is not what they mean.

The NHS needs cultural and system change to make it more efficient. I don't care whether the services are in a hospital or at the bottom of my garden, I just want decent, efficient, good quality, safe services.

I agree, its a good idea in principle, but the logistics, premsises, staffing, locations, costing, time scales, etc all need detail before a real opinion can be formed.

I read about this today and instantly thought, what another crock of shit being served up to us in the name of ' progress'. When you break it down its merely about purchasing new buildings with no talk of how it will be staffed, or differentiation of services or additional Drs and nurses. No one cares about WHERE they will be seen or amended opening times, they just want to be seen and treated in the first place and for that we need more appointments. What's the point? Just another excuse for expensive consultations - someone will get rich off the back of it but it will serve absolutely no purpose to the general public.

First thoughts were about ownership and accountability. The model - new building, new structure - seems designed for outsourcing/ any wiling provider approaches. I don't know how important the NHS as an identity is to people now, but I find it easy to imagine this in the image of private Dentistry. Chains or small businesses operating the centres and a two tier service dependent on whether you are a private or an NHS customer.

Sounds like USA where you go for MRI, XRay etc at a community type specialised health centre not at hospital.

I don’t know, it all sounds good to me if it actually happens properly.

Hiring more staff and extending appointments to 12 hours a day/six days a week could be a game-changer allowing more people to be seen more quickly, and cutting waiting times.

It would also allow for people to do their medical visits out of working hours and therefore not have to keep taking time off - that might not sound important but not all workplaces are supportive of endless medical appointments.

Having services available more locally, as they used to be, and not having to treck to huge out of town hospitals would cut travel time (so less time off work needed) and travel expense. This could make a huge difference for people who don’t live close to a big hospital, or don’t have an easy means of transport.

Interesting but the 12 hour thing for appointments may not work as well as expected last time we offered evening or Saturday appointments they were not popular, which surprised us. Patient coming for physio, ot, routine investigations.