Government’s focus on care in the community is to be welcomed but questions remain

If the Government is going to tackle underlying issues in the NHS then it needs innovative thinking and a shift away from throwing more and more money at quick fixes.

New health centres will house the neighbourhood teams, which will eventually be open 12 hours a day, six days a week within local communities.

As many healthcare experts have said, care in the community is essential to delivering for patients.

However, there are questions as to whether these plans will stick as there is a lack of detail. The public and workers in the NHS will want to know why it will be different this time and how soon it will lead to improvements.

And as Thea Stein, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, points out “care closer to home doesn’t mean care on the cheap”.

“While ministers are always keen to cite examples of community services saving money, often this kind of care cost more, not less, as the economies of scale that might have been realised in hospital are difficult to achieve in communities,” she added.

Money will need to be found to deliver meaningful care in the community and that may mean diverting funds within the NHS.

The Government should be commended for coming up with a 10-year plan to fix a health service that has been for far too long on its knees.

Prevention rather than cure is the most effective way of easing pressure on the NHS but there is no magic pill as behavioural changes are hard to effect.

There is also a need to bring the NHS into the modern age through digitisation. Technology will be important to delivering efficiencies. Efficiencies that should be embraced by the health service.