Matt Hancock - the future of healthcare

Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock delivered a ‘future of healthcare’ speech to the Royal College of Physicians on Thursday and laid out seven lessons from the health and care response to Covid-19 that he wants to see retained. If followed through, some of his points would mark significant shifts in policy and Conservative thinking. However, Hancock said it was important to “build better” in the way that London was built better after the Great Fire in 1666.

Hancock’s seven points were: the NHS must value people and ‘bust bureaucracy’ that gets in their way; the future is “collaboration not competition”; “better technology means better healthcare”; the NHS must be open to other sectors; planning and funding will be “system first”; and social care and public health need more attention. On tech, Hancock said consultations will be digital first, and there will be a new focus on interoperability and data sharing.