On Saturday 7th December, the NHS roadshow visited Preston to give more than 100 people from the North West the chance to share their views on their local NHS services, where waiting lists are longer than a million people long, with over 40,000 being of those waiting times being more than a year.
NHS England’s Chief Nursing Officer, Duncan Burton, will speak directly to locals on their opinions on how to best approach the reform of the NHS, and how the 10 Year Health Plan can best help tackle disparities in the wider region to revitalise our health services.
Data shows that issues specific to the North West include: a waiting list of over 241,000 at the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, with over 7,000 outhouse being more than a year, and a waiting list of more than 57,000 at the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with over 1,000 of those being more than a year. At the end of September 2024, nearly 60,000 patients waited more than 4 weeks for a GP appointment in this region, and over 15,000 patients waited that long in the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board.
Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: “The NHS is going through the worst crisis in its history, and with over 1 million people stuck on waiting lists in the North West, people in this region are feeling the impact.
“We have a once in a generation opportunity to fix our health service, but we can only succeed by listening to the people who know it best.
“Whether you use the NHS or work in it, you see first-hand what’s great, but also what isn’t working.
“I urge everyone to go to change.nhs.uk today and help us build a health service fit for the future.”
Chief nursing officer for England, Duncan Barton, said: “We are determined to ensure that as many of our staff, patients, and the public can share their best ideas for the NHS so that we can spread these innovations across the country.
“And today’s 10 Year Health Plan event in Preston has been a fantastic opportunity for us to hear from those people who have experienced both the good and the bad of the NHS.
“I have been incredibly impressed by the achievements of the staff here in Lancashire and South Cumbria who are already doing great work to shift hospital care into the community, and I’m sure with the public’s support we can build on this momentum and create an NHS fit for the future.”
The visit to the North West comes part as the government’s call to the nation to ask all NHS staff patients, and experts — as well as the general public — to visit the online platform change.nhs,uk and share their opinions on how to fix the NHS for the future. So far, change.nhs.uk has already received almost 1.2 million visits, with 9,000 ideas, suggestions, and opinions shared. It will be live until spring 2025 and is available via the NHS App.
Of the thousands of ideas already submitted on how to fix our NHS, popular suggestions include establishing an NHS research company to gain sights on early prevention, digital records access for all healthcare professionals, pop-up clinics for areas of need, and to switch to digital leaflets and letters for those who have access to IT.
This comes part of the government’s 10 Health Plan, set to be published in spring 2025, and driven by three big shifts the government wants to implement in national healthcare: the movement from hospitals to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
