Wes Streeting has staked the future of the NHS on a digital overhaul in which a beefed-up NHS app and new hospital league tables are promised to give patients unprecedented control over their care.<\/p>\n
A dramatic expansion of the role of the NHS<\/a> app will result in fewer staff than expected by 2035, with Streeting banking on digital efficiencies to reduce the number of frontline workers, a move described as a \u201clarge bet\u201d by industry experts.<\/p>\n The digital tool will enable patients to self-refer when they need help, book appointments with clinicians, receive advice from an AI GP or see their medical records.<\/p>\n \u201cThe NHS app will become a doctor in your pocket, bringing our health service into the 21st century,\u201d the health secretary said as he launched the government\u2019s much-trailed 10-year health plan.<\/p>\n Highlighting that those who use private healthcare already get instant advice, remote consultations with a doctor and choice over their appointments, he promised that \u201cour reforms will bring those services to every patient, regardless of their ability to pay\u201d.<\/p>\n The plan is intended to transform the NHS in England into a more patient-focused service that keeps people healthier and out of hospital by providing care faster, digitally and close to their homes.<\/p>\n However, while experts welcomed the plan\u2019s ambitions, they warned that staff shortages, the NHS\u2019s fragile finances and failure to set out how delivery of its many goals would be achieved raised serious doubts over how soon changes would be implemented.<\/p>\n Sarah Woolnough, the chief executive of the King\u2019s Fund, said: \u201cMaking significant progress to tackle hospital waiting lists while shifting the focus of the health service to prevent and better manage more care in the community is a tall order.\u201d<\/p>\n The NHS will have a smaller workforce at the end of the 10-year period, because ministers are so confident that digital care will have become commonplace.<\/p>\n Woolnough said: \u201cThe government is placing a large bet on technology and automation freeing up enough clinician time so that fewer frontline staff will be needed in the future. If that bet doesn\u2019t pay off the NHS could face an even larger staffing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n By 2028 the app will let patients access a new single patient record containing details of previous interactions with the NHS such as tests, operations and outpatient appointments.<\/p>\n The NHS\u2019s embrace of tech to tackle its ills will also involve AI taking notes during GPs\u2019 and hospital doctors\u2019 consultations with patients and use generative AI to create the first draft of care plans, in an effort to give clinicians more time with the sick.<\/p>\n In a move designed to drive up standards of care, patients will also be able to see the data underpinning the rankings of hospital league tables, which will be published for the first time this summer \u2013 such as waiting times, how patients have rated particular services, and details of their clinical outcomes \u2013 and use it to choose the NHS trust where they will have their next treatment.<\/p>\n Expanding the role of technology to help the NHS \u201ccould be a real gamechanger\u201d, said Thea Stein, the chief executive of the Nuffield Trust.<\/p>\n However, she rejected the plan\u2019s claim that the NHS was so weakened after 14 years of neglect under the Conservatives that it \u201cnow stands at an existential brink\u201d and needed radical surgery in order to avoid losing public support and becoming a two-tier \u201cpoor service for poor people\u201d.<\/p>\n While public satisfaction with the NHS across Great Britain has plummeted<\/a> to just 21% , support for its basic principles \u2013 a taxpayer-funded service that is open to all and free to use \u2013 remains \u201chigh and resilient\u201d, Stein said. \u201cWe do not agree with the prophecy of extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The plan outlines how Labour will implement three \u201cradical shifts\u201d in which the NHS will move from analogue to digital, treatment to prevention, and hospital-based care to far more community-based services.<\/p>\n Keir Starmer, launching the plan in London on the eve of the anniversary of Labour\u2019s election victory, claimed that the embattled health service\u2019s future was rosier after his party\u2019s year in power.<\/p>\n He cited the hiring of 6,000 extra mental health staff and 1,700 additional GPs and the \u201crecord investment\u201d the NHS was receiving — \u00a329bn more a year by 2029 compared to 2023-24 — as proof of the government\u2019s support for it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to stand here and say everything is perfect now. We have a lot more work to do and we will do it.<\/p>\n \u201cBut let\u2019s be under no illusions. Because of the fair choices we made, the tough Labour decisions we made, the future already looks better for our NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan makes clear that in future, the more prevention-focused NHS will operate on the basis that \u201ccare should happen as locally as it can; [be] digitally by default; in a patient\u2019s home if possible; in a neighbourhood health centre when needed; [and] in a hospital if necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n Over the next few years, billions of pounds of NHS funding will be taken away from hospitals and used to create a network of new one-stop-shop-style neighbourhood health centres \u201cin every community\u201d offering a range of services, including diagnostic tests and mental health support. However, it is unclear how many there will be or when they will open.<\/p>\n