Building the health of the nation: priorities for a new government (NHS Confederation, (21 February 2024)

Summary

This manifesto draws on the views of NHS Confederation members—health and care leaders across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It suggests five changes that the next government will need to make in order to place the health and care system on a sustainable footing:

1. Put the NHS on a more sustainable footing, with no top-down structural reform in England for the next parliament. Commit to a short-term stabilisation plan during the first 12 months of parliament to help get performance in the English NHS back on track.
2. Increase NHS capital spending across the UK and reform how the capital regime operates. Specifically in England, capital funding needs to increase to at least £14.1 billion annually, a £6.4 billion increase from the current level of £7.7 billion. This is vital if we are to increase productivity and reduce waiting lists.
3. Commit to fund and deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan for England, alongside an equivalent plan for social care.
4. Provide more care closer to home by enabling local health systems to proportionately increase investment upstream into primary care and community-based services, mental health and social care.
5. Deliver a strategy for national health given that most policy that impacts people’s health is made outside the NHS. The Prime Minister should lead a cross-government national mission for health improvement to shift the focus from simply treating illness to promoting health and wellbeing, reducing inequalities and tackling the wider determinants of health, and supporting the public to be active partners in their own health.

Content