The report draws on The King's Fund's five-year programme of work on health inequalities and tackling the worst health outcomes, which includes insights from stakeholders, partners and people with lived experience, and outlines what the Government's 10-year health plan should focus on.
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund, said: ‘It is deeply unfair that some groups experience worse health and care than others. The development of a 10-year plan offers a real opportunity to facilitate the significant change that is so desperately needed.'
The seven priorities are:
- develop a cross-government health inequalities strategy for the 10-year health plan to feed into
- reorientate the NHS to focus on prevention
- radically change the relationships the NHS has with people and communities, from ‘power over' to ‘power with'
- tackle racism and discrimination in the NHS and cultivate a culture of compassion
- enable staff to identify and act on health inequalities and capture learning
- empower place-based partnerships to take more decisions about how NHS money is spent
- actively support local voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations through changes in financial planning and commissioning.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘Lord Darzi's report revealed the appalling state of the NHS. This Government is taking immediate action to get it back on its feet and will create a 10-year plan to make it fit for the future.
‘We will fundamentally reform the health system through three big shifts – from hospital to the community, analogue to digital and treatment to prevention.
‘We will create a healthier society while ensuring patients receive the highest quality care when and where they need it.'
