Mike Unger’s Post

Dr Becks Fisher of the Nuffield Trust makes the pertinent point that even if you implemented the reforms outlined in the report below, it wouldn't make much of a dent until you address the crisis in social care and public health. Investment into safe, affordable and sustainable housing is a key mechanism in terms of improving health outcomes. It's not just about the bricks and mortar. Homes, and decent affordable/social homes at that, are an invest to save proposition. Our own work at CIH Cymru, as part of the #backthebill campaign in Wales with Shelter Cymru and Tai Pawb to incorporat the right to adequate housing into Welsh law, showed that a decent and accessible home for everyone in Wales would save the public purse £11.5bn against an investment of £5bn. We need to be radical and look beyond the political cycle if we are to solve the twin crises in our NHS and housing system....we can't solve one without solving the other! We need to make housing a foundation mission of government, through a rights-based approach, as a means to improve public health and therefore drastically reduce demand on the NHS.

Despite successive governments repeating a vision of health and care services focused on communities rather than hospitals, that vision is very far from being achieved. The failure to grow and invest in primary and community health and care services ranks as one of the most significant and long-running failures of policy and implementation in the NHS and social care for more than 30 years. This is partly been due to a ‘cycle of invisibility’ for primary and community health and care services, where they are hard to quantify and easy to overlook, and hierarchies of care, with urgent problems taking priority over longer-term issues. This report from The King's Fund describes why it is not sufficient to selectively implement a few changes; the shift that is required is wholesale, including greater alignment between policy and vision, so that funding, regulation, workforce and performance policies match the intention of changing the focus of the health and care system towards primary and community health and care services. Department of Health and Social Care NHS England NHS Providers NHS Confederation British Medical Association Royal College of General Practitioners Local Government Association #nhs #primarycare #communitycare #policy #vision #careclosertohome #performance #workforce #regulation

#uk #healthcare #politics #policy #economics New government, new possibilities, new politics! For those working in and with the NHS, now could be a great time of full potential. To invest in the enhancement of our national health system, improving access and quality for all, appropriately and free at the point of access. Let’s see how we can all support that goal to the best of our abilities. 💫⭐️

The NHS, social care & health in Scotland are in need of review & reform just as much as in England. Our #NHS2048 continues to hear from different voices outlining how reform is possible & necessary. Prevention & community-based care are recurring themes⬇️ https://lnkd.in/ewae8NtM

Health care is always at the forefront of politics, it is the same in every country! The question is: Is our current system fit for purpose and if not how do we change it...? But not only from the political/funding point of view, but from the individual point of view - are we ready, as a society to play our individual part on a daily basis? We have enough evidence that smoking and drinking - kills, eating unhealthy - leads to various conditions, not exercising - contributes to poor health... So, are you ready to play your part? And once you do concurrently for 1 year - let's ask this questing 😉

🚨 NEW REPORT OUT TODAY 🚨 ‘Close enough to care: A new structure for the English health and care system’ as covered in The Times We propose pooling and devolving the NHS budget to regional mayors, and in turn, abolishing NHS England. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/ewia-whz

CIPFA welcomes the stark yet realistic findings of the UK National Audit Office's report published yesterday which reveals many NHS bodies fail to break even.    In 2023/24 alone, the 42 NHS systems planned for an aggregated deficit of £720 million. Whilst NHS England calculates that it balanced its 2023/24 budget overall by reducing its own central spending, the report adds to overwhelming evidence that the NHS is perilously close to failing unless significant decisions on public service funding and reform are made.   🚨 Find out what CIPFA calls on the new government to implement to fix the future sustainability of the NHS and public services now: https://lnkd.in/dxa7GT_Z   #NHS #NAOreport #PublicSector

🚨 Keir Starmer has revealed plans to 'reform' health care services after a report has found 'serious trouble' for our NHS. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “NHS staff are the bedrock of our health care system - without their dedication, hard work and commitment the NHS doesn’t exist. “The prime minister is right that the NHS has been run into the ground by successive Conservative governments but reforms cannot be a byword for cuts or downgrades to our members’ pay and conditions. “The knowledge, skills and experience of NHS staff is the key to improving the health service and we are still facing a crisis of recruitment and retention. By investing more in staff, the NHS’s greatest resource, patients will benefit from better outcomes.” While The Labour Party insist there is 'no more money' for the NHS, Unite the Union are campaigning for a 1% wealth tax on the super-rich, a tax which we can raise funds to put back into public services for the good of all. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eaH9X8h2 Yes, our economy is broken after 14 years of Tory austerity, but the money is there. Labour must change the pattern of a governance which puts our public services and communities at the back of the line. Our NHS need resources and sustainable staffing to be viable #UnitetheUnion #NHS #PublicServices #Healthcare

There is good evidence that investment in primary care and public health, among other services and programmes, all delivers meaningful benefits. But while governments have often claimed a desire to pursue preventative policies, they have frequently struggled to match lofty rhetoric and ambitions with a meaningful shift in approach in policy making. Since 2010, across a wide range of services, political attention – and with it, funding – has been pulled towards acute services. However, a different approach is possible. While it is made more challenging by the scale of acute demand and the tightness of public finances, those same pressures necessitate a shift towards prevention: without meaningfully limiting the growth in acute demand, it will become increasingly difficult to deliver high-performing public services, at least while keeping taxation and government debt at sustainable levels. This report, from Institute for Government, looks at the barriers to a more preventative approach to public services, how these could be overcome, and the benefits to the government and public. Department of Health and Social Care Local Government Association Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) NHS England NHS Confederation NHS Providers Nick Davies Stuart Hoddinott Darwin Kim #prevention #health #strategy #policy #nhs #publicservices #publicsector #widerdeterminants

We used to clap for ‘our’ NHS Describing the NHS as ‘our NHS’ was used now and then by a polemicist who wished to emphasise its communitarian principles: free at the point of use, funded through taxation, and accessible to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. It is now almost compulsory to describe the NHS as ‘ours’. This is despite that it feels less and less ‘ours’ and more and more not there most of the time for most of us. ‘Our’ explained in part to the mawkish sentimentality encouraged by social media. But it perhaps also reflects the increasing loss of social cohesion here and in many other countries. Rudolf Klein said that the only things which now bind us together are the NHS and the Post Office. Since then, Post Office seems largely out of it. Better to see the NHS as a business which should be well run (and as Muir Grey recently commented, adequately managed) rather than be grateful for a leaking lifeboat because it’s something to cling to in stormy seas. #reimbursement #medicaldevices #diagnostics #healtheconomics #HTA