Starmer outlines plan to shift NHS care from hospitals to new health centres

The NHS will shift a huge amount of care from hospitals into new community health centres to bring treatment closer to people’s homes and cut waiting times, Keir Starmer will pledge on Thursday.

The prime minister will outline radical plans to give patients in England much easier access to GPs, scans and mental health support in facilities that are open 12 hours a day, six days a week.

The health service must “reform or die”, he will say, when he unveils his 10-year health plan.

Experts, however, said the planned revolution in the way the NHS operates risked being undermined by staff shortages, tight public finances, a lack of premises in which to host one-stop shop-style “neighbourhood health services” and a public backlash at hospitals being downgraded.

“Our 10-year health plan will fundamentally rewire and future-proof our NHS so that it puts care on people’s doorsteps, harnesses game-changing tech and prevents illness in the first place,” Starmer is expected to say at a launch event in London with the health secretary, Wes Streeting.

“That means giving everyone access to GPs, nurses and wider support all under one roof in their neighbourhood – rebalancing our health system so that it fits around patients’ lives, not the other way round.”

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Source: The Guardian, 3 July 2025