Health Secretary wants to hear experiences of NHS 'warts and all'
Kris Jepson was on Teesside as the new Health Secretary spoke to people in Middlesbrough about what they wanted the NHS to look like in the future.
Health inequalities in the North East, waiting times and obesity were on the agenda as the Health and Social Care Secretary visited Teesside today (16 November).
Wes Streeting MP kicked off a nationwide roadshow, which will help shape the 10 Year Health Plan. Hundreds of people in Middlesbrough attended the first event, which was also attended by the Chief Executive of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard.
The aim was to gather the views of local communities on how the NHS could be reformed to reduce widening health inequalities.
The Health Secretary told ITV News: "I don’t just want to hear all the best bits of the NHS and the rose tinted glasses version. I want to get people’s views on the NHS, warts and all, and that’s why it’s important that people here in the North East have their say.
"We’ve got people from right across the region today with us in Middlesbrough and we’ve had nearly a million people visit change.nhs.uk, that’s how you can get involved right now."
Change.nhs.uk is an online platform that was launched last month as part of the government's efforts to hear people's experiences and ideas of the NHS and shape the 10-year plan.
According to the Department of Health and Social Care, the latest statistics show that between 2020-2022 Middlesbrough had the lowest life expectancy in the North East, making it a key location to start the roadshows.
The health inequalities of the North East are starkly laid out by the department:
At South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 18-week waiting lists have risen by nearly 4,300 people (8%) in the past year to more than 53,000.
In 2023 to 2024, 24.5% of children in year 6 in the North East (aged 10-11 years) were living with obesity, the highest in the country.
Between July 2023 and June 2024, 42% of women booking maternity care with South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust lived in the 20% most deprived areas of England.
10% of adults with serious mental illnesses in the North East have been waiting for a second appointment with community mental health services for over 800 days.
Asked how he will make the 10 year plan work for an NHS struggling to recruit and retain doctors and nurses, Mr Streeting responded: "The budget gave us the investment. We’ve got the reform agenda that will help us get the NHS back on its feet, making sure that waiting times begin to fall, making sure that people can access NHS services more easily, but as well as getting the NHS back on its feet, we also need to make sure its fit for the future."
The government plans to make three "big shifts" in healthcare, which include moving services from hospital to community, analogue to digital resources and treating sickness to prevention. These three pillars will underpin the 10 Year Health Plan which will be published in spring 2025.
Hospital to community, according the government, will involve launching new neighbourhood health centres closer to homes and communities, where patients should be able to see doctors, district nurses, care workers, physios, heath visitors and mental health medics under one roof.
Analogue to digital, the government says, will allow for patients' records, test results and letters to be held in one digital space, the NHS app.
Sickness to prevention will focus on preventing people getting ill in the first place, says the minister.
Chief executive of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard, who was also on Teesside told ITV News: "Digital technology give us so much opportunity now in the health service to do stuff we couldn’t have envisioned doing before, whether that is provided remote monitoring in people’s own homes, through to giving people access to services, booking, changing appointments on their app."
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