Our NHS was meant to be part of a system serving the community and supporting people for all stages of life. While the NHS has evolved since it was set up in 1948, healthcare has changed a lot. We also face challenges including:
- Demography (such as an ageing population)
- Changing patterns of illness
- New technology (which can be expensive)
- Creating a shared understanding of what we can deliver
If we want to make sure the NHS can keep helping us in the future, we need to transform how and where we deliver care. We also need to focus on enabling wellness as well as responding to illness.
The pandemic has added to our staffing issues and caused a backlog of people waiting for care. The pressure on the NHS causes delays to both planned and emergency care. As a result, confidence in the NHS could be reduced.
The pandemic has also highlighted the inequalities in our society. These add to poor health and impact our health and social care system. We need to work with our staff, partners and the public to tackle the social and economic conditions which can lead to poor health.
We know the pandemic had a major impact on colleagues (both professionally and personally), families and individuals (particularly the most vulnerable in our society).
While we adapt to live with COVID-19 and potential future waves, we can:
- Do more of the same
- Or build on the innovation and collaboration during the pandemic and redesign how we work for the 10 years and beyond.
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