Government launches ‘Change NHS’ conversation

The government has started a national conversation about the future of the NHS.

A new online platform, change.nhs.uk, has been created to collect views and ideas from the public, NHS staff and organisations to help shape the government’s 10-year health plan.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “My mum worked for the NHS, my sister worked for the NHS and my wife still works for the NHS – so I know first-hand how difficult it has been for staff, and for patients battling against a broken system for over a decade. But it’s time to roll up our sleeves and fix it.

“We have a clear plan to fix the health service, but it’s only right that we hear from the people who rely on the NHS every day to have their say and shape our plan as we deliver it. Together we can build a healthcare system that puts patients first and delivers the care that everyone deserves.

“We have 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.” People and organisations will be able to give their views on the NHS until the start of next year.

Useful Change NHS links:

• Change NHS homepage
• Change NHS FAQs
• Change NHS survey link
• Change NHS public
• Change NHS workforce
• Change NHS ideas for change
• Change NHS organisations
• Change NHS Integrated Care Systems (‘workshop in a box’ materials to be added here in mid-November).

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, the NHS saved my life, as it has for so many people across our country. We all owe the NHS a debt of gratitude for a moment in our lives when it was there for us, when we needed it. Now we have a chance to repay that debt.

“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.”

• Watch Wes Streeting talk about this on the Department of Health and Social Care’s YouTube account.
• He has also written an article in the Guardian.
• The Labour Party’s X post.

NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard said: “It is vital the health service innovates and adapts – as it has always done throughout its 76-year history – to design and deliver an NHS fit for the future.

“The 10 Year Health Plan is a chance to make the best practice, normal practice across the country. So, we will be carrying out the largest ever staff engagement exercise in NHS history and leaving no stone unturned as we seek to harness frontline views, alongside those of patients and the public, to ensure this happens.”

• Watch Amanda Pritchard talk about this on NHS England’s YouTube account.

The Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery said: “This will be a landmark moment for the NHS. Trust leaders are ready and willing to work with the government to tackle the many challenges the NHS currently faces to create a ‘next generation’ NHS fit for the future.”

• Watch Saffron Cordery speak about this on BBC Breakfast’s X account.
• NHS Providers’ full statement is on its website.

A full article about Change NHS is on the government’s website and letters to staff are on the NHS England website.