Thank you Rachel, thank you Wes. And thank you Denyse. Come and sit down with us. Denyse’s story is fantastic. Because she works here. She lives in this borough and she uses the services here.
What a great testament that is. And Denyse, thank you for your introduction and thank you for your words.
It’s a privilege to be here with you in Stratford. I’ve seen the work that you have been doing this morning. And I’m sorry for interrupting your work.
I do understand how hard it is. My mum worked in the NHS. She was a nurse, a proud nurse. My sister worked in the NHS and my wife still works in the NHS in one of the big London hospitals. So I do understand what you do, how you do it, what you put in and why you do it.
So let me start by saying a big thank you to all of you for what you do, and if I may, through you, to say thank you to all NHS staff right across the country who do what they do as public servants by treating and caring for other people.
Thank you also for welcoming us here. To your Neighbourhood Health Centre. Because it’s buildings like this here that represent the future of the NHS.
As I’ve just had the chance to go around and see some of the work that’s going on here. The 24 teams that you have got working on dentistry. I’m really pleased to see that you don’t need an appointment, you can walk in. You have got children and families up there on the next floor having their teeth done. That’s hugely important.
And that’s what a Neighbourhood Health Service can do working in partnership with the people it serves. And Denyse you are the embodiment of that.
Power and control in their hands. Care closer to their community. Services organised around their lives.
But look – before I say a bit more about the future in a minute. But it is important that we go back a year to the NHS left by the last government. With record waiting lists. The lowest ever satisfaction. I know the toll that takes on staff who work so hard.
100,000 children waiting more than six hours in A&E.
Now – I’m not going to stand here and say that everything is perfect now. We have so much work to do and we will do it.
But let’s be under absolutely no illusions. Because of the fair choices we made, the tough [political content redacted] decisions we made the future already looks better for our NHS.
That’s the story of this Government in a nutshell. With breakfast clubs, hugely important for children coming into schools so they are ready to learn.
Potholes across the country – filled. Fuel duty – frozen. Four interest rate cuts, hugely important for mortgage holders.
Setting up Great British energy, levelling up workers’ rights, record investment in affordable housing, infrastructure the length and breadth of our country.
It’s all down to the foundation we laid this year. All down to the path of renewal that we chose.
The decisions made by the Chancellor, by Rachel Reeves which mean we can invest record amounts in the NHS.
Already over 6000 mental health workers recruited.
1700 new GPs.
170 Community Diagnostic Centres, really important, already open.
New surgical hubs, new mental health units, new ambulance sites. Record investment – right across the system.
And because of all that the results are crystal clear.
At the last election a year ago, we promised two million extra appointments in the NHS in the first year of [political content redacted] government.
We have now delivered four million extra appointments and that’s thanks to your hard work and that of your colleagues.
4 million. That’s a record amount for a single year ever. And I want to thank you for the part that you have played in that.
That is what change looks like.
A promise made and a promised delivered.
And turning those statistics into the human is really important. So let me tell you about Jane.
At Christmas, she was taken to hospital with back pain.
And the diagnosis was not good. She needed her gallbladder removed. Jane asked as you can imagine “how long will I have to wait”.
And they said – “I’m sorry, but at the moment it could take up to ten months.”
Yet – because we have speeded up electives, because we have speeded up appointments, by May – she was offered a private appointment, paid for by the NHS, as part of our plan.
And now Jane is pain free.
Five months – not ten.
She’s got five months back – free from pain, free from anxiety and in a sense her life is no longer on hold.
That’s what change looks like in human terms. [Political content redacted.]
But we have to keep going.
We are fixing the foundations. We made choices no other government would have made and we are starting to repair the damage done to the NHS and public health, through Covid and austerity.
But reform isn’t just about fixing problems. It’s also about seizing opportunities.
And the way I see it – there is an opportunity here.
Because the NHS is at a turning point in its history.
We’re an older society now. Disease has changed.
Conditions are chronic, they are long-term, they need to be managed. And that means we need to reform the NHS to make it fit for the future.
With the technology that is available to us now, we have an unprecedented chance to do that to make care better.
To transform the relationship between people and the state. To give patients more power and control. And this is about fairness.
Millions of people across Britain no longer feel they get a fair deal.
And it’s starting to affect the pride, the hope, the optimism they have in this great country.
Our job is to change that. And the NHS is a huge part of it. I mean – for 77 years this weekend the NHS has been an embodiment if you like of British pride, hope, that basic sense of fairness and decency.
77 years – of everyone paying in, working hard, doing the right thing, secure in the knowledge, that if they or their family needs it, the NHS will be there for them.
In ten years’ time – when this plan has run its course, I want people to say this was the moment, this was the government that secured those values for the future.
And look – when people are uncertain about the deal they are getting from this country, what fairer way is there to respond to that than by giving them more control.
By partnering with them, to build an NHS that is fit to face the future.
That’s what this plan that we are launching today will do.
And it will do so in three ways.
Three shifts that will transform healthcare in this country.
First – we will shift the NHS away from being only a sickness service to a health service that is genuinely preventative in the first place, prevents disease in the first place.
That means a stronger focus on vaccination, on screening, early diagnosis.
Things like innovative weight loss services – available in pharmacies.
Working with major food businesses – to make their products healthier.
Better mental health support, particularly for our young people. And starting with children aged sixteen this year we will raise the first entirely smoke-free generation.
Second – we will shift the NHS away from being a hospital-dominated service to being a community, neighbourhood health service.
You can see why we chose to come here. Places like this are the future of our NHS. You don’t have to book an appointment. You can just walk in. There are families here and people who use the services live in this area.
Now of course hospitals will always be important – for acute services especially.
But I say it again – disease has changed. And we must change with it.
And not only can we do that. We can do it in a way that improves care and convenience for millions of people.
So just imagining nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists, carers, health visitors all under one roof.
But also, services like debt advice, employment support, smoking cessation preventative services which we know are so crucial for a healthy life.
Now that is an exciting prospect.
You know – the idea that the future of healthcare is no longer defined by top-down citadels of the central state.
But is instead here – in your home, in your community, in your hands, that’s an inspiring vision of change.
It will bring the state and the people it serves into a partnership on something we all care deeply about.
But more importantly. It means a future where we have better GP access, no more 8am scrambles, more dental care for your children, better care on your doorstep and a Neighbourhood Health Centres like this in our coastal towns, in rural counties, in every community across the country. Every community across the country.
Finally – the third shift from the analogue NHS we have at the moment to a truly digital health service.
A health service capable of seizing the enormous opportunities before us in science and technology.
In genomics, in artificial intelligence, advanced robotics.
Look – I have seen in your everyday lives what this can do.
I’ve spoken to stroke patients who have had their lives saved by technology and AI because it could find the blood clot in their brain in milliseconds, giving them just enough time to be operated on and saving their lives.
So this plan – backs technology to deliver. Because it can and will save thousands of lives. But it’s not just about saving lives.
AI and technology is an opportunity to make services more human.
That always sounds counterintuitive, but it does because what it gives all of you and all of your colleagues is more time to care, more time to do the things that only human beings can do which is that care that is needed, the professional skills that you have. So this will make it a more human service as well.
It gives you more time to care, to do all the things that brought you into the NHS in the first place.
And it’s not just cutting-edge technology either.
Technology like the phones in the pockets of everyone in this room we can use that too.
Now, you won’t hear this often in a speech – but look at your phones. But look at your apps! Seriously! Because what you see on that screen is that entire industries have reorganised around apps.
Retail, transport, finance, weather – you name it.
Why can’t we do that with health?
Why not the NHS app on your phone?
Making use of the same dynamic force to cut waiting lists at your hospital.
To make it easier for you to get a GP appointment, to give you more control over our health.
There’s no good reason why we can’t. So I can announce today, as part of this plan, that we can, and we will transform the NHS App so that it becomes an indispensable part of life for everyone.
It will become – as technology develops – like having a doctor in your pocket.
Providing you with 24 hours advice, seven days a week.
An NHS that really is always there when you need it.
Booking appointments at your convenience, ordering your prescriptions, guiding you to local charities or businesses that can improve your wellbeing.
And perhaps most importantly, holding all healthcare data in an easily accessible, single patient record.
Don’t underestimate how important that is.
I’ve been up to Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool many times, it’s a children’s hospital, it’s a brilliant hospital.
One of the times I was there I was on the ward, particularly young children were having heart surgery.
I have to tell you it was really humbling both seeing what the children were going through but also what the professional staff were doing.
When I went into a particular ward, I saw a two year old boy who had just had major heart surgery, it’s an incredible thing to see.
And I spoke to his parents who were at his bedside throughout.
One of the things they raised with me was the distress they felt that they had to go through every single condition that he had over and over again, whether they went to Blackpool, in Liverpool, at Alder Hey.
They were actually welling up telling me it’s a really difficult story for us, this is really hard. And we don’t want to keep having to repeat it, why can’t it be recorded the first time around?
I will remember their faces and the story they told me for a very long time.
But we can fix that. We can make it more accessible. We can bring this together in one place.
And there are other examples as well. That red book that every child gets. Why can’t that be digital? There’s no good reason.
And so that’s exactly what we’ll do.
We will turn this app into a new front door for the entire NHS.
A reformed, modernised and renewed – Neighbourhood Health Service.
That is the plan we launch today.
That is the change we will deliver.
[Political content redacted.]
The NHS on its feet. Facing the future. Delivering fairness and security for working people.
Thank you.
