NHS England publishes ten year plan setting out priorities for the future.

Health and care leaders have come together to develop a Long Term Plan to make the NHS fit for the future, and to get the most value for patients out of every pound of taxpayers’ investment.

NHS England leaders say that the Long Term Plan could save up to 500,000 lives over the next ten years by focusing on prevention and early detection.

The plan comes after the Government announced the NHS budget would be increased by £20bn a year by 2023. The biggest funding increases will be seen in GPs, mental health and community care.

Now is the right time for us to talk with our communities about which are the areas that we need to focus on to ensure services remain sustainable and right for patients.

Find out more and download the NHS Long Term Plan document

Your chance to influence the future of our local NHS

Do you want to influence the future of our NHS? Have you got ideas of how we can make health and care more affordable?

Now the NHS Long-Term plan has been published, local health and care organisations have been asked to work together, to create their own plans which will set out how the national plan will work across local areas. Sussex and East Surrey STP has published a “Population Health Check”

During 2019, the local NHS will be going out to listen to people, patients and staff to encourage them to give their feedback on the health check before putting together a local action plan later in the year.

Events taking place can be found here

Find out more about our Population Health Check

Healthwatch and public engagement

Healthwatch in Sussex and Surrey are working together to plan public engagement opportunities on the future of health and care. This engagement will build on previous conversations and identify the priority areas that need to be the focus of the local plans.

John Routledge, Director of East Sussex Community Voice delivering Healthwatch East Sussex said:

“I’m very pleased to see a role for the Healthwatch Network in the way the strategy is put into place – this recognises the importance of patient engagement and lived experience remains at the heart of how we must adapt our health service to meet the demands of the future.”

More details on the Healthwatch public engagement, including a public survey, will be available later this month.