The NHS 10 year plan flags that the Government intends to abolish local Healthwatch. This is part of a wider move away from independent public voice - replacing it with individual NHS apps and a reliance on NHS providers and commissioners doing public involvement better. You can read my initial critique of this proposal here. In order to abolish local Healthwatch - an Act will need to be passed in Parliament.

At the centre of the government's Fit for the Future (FFF)is a loss of heart - replaced by an inward looking managerialist response to complex challenges.  The NHS is ours. We need governments to enable citizens to engage with services, to work alongside, to actively discuss and challenge. The plan recognises the importance of addressing quality and pays lip service to the primacy of place.

The above quote is from page 89 of Fit for the Future – 10 year health plan for England it gives an insight into the quality of analysis  held by the writers of this report. From a quick web …

The above quote is from page 89 of Fit for the Future - 10 year health plan for England it gives an insight into the quality of analysis  held by the writers of this report. From a quick web search I think that for the year 2023 the number of complaints referred to the health and rail service ombudsman were as follows:

One of the reasons why the NHS bodies with the longest history - hospitals - know that they only need to respond VERRRY slowly to NHS commissioners is because the next time they look those commissioners will be gone and replaced by another structure. Here we go again The government is: Abolishing the arms length body NHS England - subsuming some of its functions into the Department of Health and Social Care.

It is unusual for me to read a policy document from NHS England that I feel generally pretty positive about. The launch at the end of January the NHSE Neighbourhood Health Guidelines might be an important and hopeful moment. However, in order for these guidelines to make a difference they must be used by local change agents in the statutory and voluntary sector as a platform to engage with, motivate and challenge NHS structures to respond and put in place actions that will fundamentally change current working practice.