Government calls on nation to share experiences and ideas to ‘help fix our NHS’
The British public and clinicians are being asked to share their experiences and ideas to “help fix our NHS”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is calling on the entire country to help shape the government’s “10 Year Health Plan” with a “national conversation”.
Members of the public, NHS staff and experts are being invited to share their experiences, views and ideas on how the health service should move forward.
People can submit their ideas on change.nhs.uk or on the NHS app until the beginning of next year.
Mr Streeting, who was treated for kidney cancer in 2021, said the NHS “saved my life” and everyone owed the health service “a debt of gratitude”.
“Now we have a chance to repay that debt,” he said.
“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.”
NHS staff are also being asked to submit their ideas and experiences
The project is part of what the government is calling a shift “from hospital to community”.
It will include plans for new neighbourhood health centres where patients will be able to see GPs, district nurses, care workers, physiotherapists, health visitors and mental health specialists in the same place.
They also want to change the NHS “from analogue to digital” by putting all patient health information, test results and letters on the NHS app.
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New laws will be introduced, the government says, to make NHS patient records available across all NHS trusts, GP surgeries and ambulance services in England to speed up patient care, reduce repeat medical tests and minimise medication errors.
The government estimates NHS staff will save 140,000 hours every year as they will be able to access patient data quickly, giving them more time to spend with patients.
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As part of Labour’s plan to move “from sickness to prevention”, it is looking at opportunities to shorten the amount of time people are ill, and to prevent illnesses.
One of the options being considered is handing out smart watches and other wearable tech to patients with diabetes or high blood pressure so they can monitor their health at any time.
Sir Keir Starmer said the 10 Year Health Plan is a “huge opportunity to put the NHS back on its feet”.
“So, let’s be the generation that took the NHS from the worst crisis in its history and made it fit for the future,” he added.
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Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey urged the government to show “ambition” in its plans, or risk the consultation “becoming a talking shop”.
He said: “We know that primary care services across the country are at the brink of collapse due to the Conservative Party’s disgraceful neglect, with patients paying the price.
“Whether it is sky-high GP waiting lists, endless ambulance response times, or a failure to diagnose cancer in time, none of these issues can be fixed without fixing the crisis in social care.
“That is why the Liberal Democrats will make sure that social care is part of the debate and push for a cross-party solution to this crisis.”
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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