On behalf of its members the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) has welcomed the launch of a major national public consultation on the future of the NHS and is encouraging the ambulance workforce and patients to contribute their thoughts and ideas via change.nhs.uk
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England will be publishing a 10-Year Health Plan in Spring 2025, setting out how they aim to deliver an NHS fit for the future, creating a truly modern health service designed to meet the changing needs of the UK’s changing population.
The change.nhs.uk consultation will be used to help design that new plan, focusing on three main shifts in healthcare – hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
Anna Parry, Managing Director of AACE said:
This is a fantastic opportunity for ambulance staff and patients alike to help shape the future of the NHS.
Working for a service that is literally on the front line of healthcare, ambulance people see and experience all aspects of the health and social care system, both good and bad, and are therefore perfectly positioned to provide their thoughts and ideas for what could be done better and how.
We are all users of the NHS and so it is crucial that our voices are heard.
Launching the consultation, Rt Hon Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said:
When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, the NHS saved my life, as it has for so many people across our country. We all owe the NHS a debt of gratitude for a moment in our lives when it was there for us, when we needed it. Now we have a chance to repay that debt.
Today the NHS is going through the worst crisis in its history. But while the NHS is broken, it’s not beaten. Together, we can fix it. Whether you use the NHS or work in it, you see first-hand what’s great, but also what isn’t working. We need your ideas to help turn the NHS around. In order to save the things we love about the NHS, we need to change it. Our 10 Year Health Plan will transform the NHS to make it fit for the future, and it will have patients’ and staff’s fingerprints all over it.
I urge everyone to go to Change.NHS.uk today and help us build a health service fit for the future.
Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive, NHS England said:
NHS staff are facing an unprecedented number of challenges – with record demand for care, alongside growing pressures from an ageing population, rising levels of multiple long-term illnesses and patients with more complex needs. And they are often hampered by working in crumbling buildings with outdated tech, meaning too many patients are waiting too long for care they need.
So, it is vital the health service innovates and adapts – as it has always done throughout its 76-year history – to design and deliver an NHS fit for the future. The 10 Year Health Plan is a chance to make the best practice, normal practice across the country. So, we will be carrying out the largest ever staff engagement exercise in NHS history and leaving no stone unturned as we seek to harness frontline views, alongside those of patients and the public, to ensure this happens.
It is your experiences – good, bad, and sometimes frustrating – that we need to help shape this once in a generation opportunity, so please get involved.
To take part in the consultation visit www.change.nhs.uk
