Yesterday the Prime Minister and Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, uncovered the long-term NHS plan. This is a ten year plan which outlines how the extra £20 billion funding for the NHS will be spent.
The plan aims to save 500,000 lives with a focus more on prevention and early detection. Better access to mental health services for adults and children also features highly on the priority list.
Mr Stevens said:-
“In looking ahead to the Health Service’s 80th birthday, this NHS Long Term Plan acts on all three of these realities. It keeps all that’s good about our health service and its place in our national life. It tackles head-on the pressures our staff face. And it sets a practical, costed, phased route map for the NHS’s priorities for care quality and outcomes improvement for the decade ahead.”
But many commentators have struggled to see how the ten year plan could not mention adult social care. There was an expectation for the plan to include how best to care for an ageing population.
George McNamara, director of policy and influencing at Independent Age, said:
“The NHS long-term plan must clearly set out the necessary funding and reforms to ensure older people can live healthier lives for longer. It is absolutely right to focus on prevention, but until the government addresses the crisis in social care the success of the NHS plan will be severely limited.”
