Thank you very much David and Prime Minister, the Secretary of State, my
colleagues from across the NHS. One or two of you may have noticed that this
past year the NHS has been celebrating its 70th anniversary, but today is not
about the 70th it's about the 80th. How do we keep everything that's so great
about our National Health Service, high-quality care for everyone at a
service that the whole country unites behind, but how do we also relieve some
of the immense pressure on our frontline staff going the extra mile day in, day
out, for a million patients a day. And at the same time how do we capitalise on
the amazing medical advances that we know are in prospect, even just last
month we've reached the hundred thousandth genome sequenced on the NHS.
The first child in Europe got NHS funded breakthrough Cancer Care CAR-T therapy
so that's the challenge facing our health service, it's the challenge
frankly facing most industrialised countries health services, how do you
future proof for the decade ahead and that's what today's long term plan is
all about. We're able to do it for three big reasons first because thanks to the
leadership of the Prime Minister we have secured funding for the National Health
Service over the next five years and second because there's a big consensus
across the country and across the Health Service about how the health service
itself needs to change. Since July we've been working with patients groups with
frontline staff, with senior doctors, nurses, other medical professionals to
answer the question what these changes should look like and I particularly want
to thank the patients groups representing three and a half million
people who've worked with us on this including Age UK, the British Heart
Foundation, the Stroke Association Macmillan, Mind, Rethink many others. So
we've got funding certainty we've got consensus about what needs to
change and the third big reason is because actually many of the changes
that this plan sets out are already happening somewhere in the NHS and now
they need to happen everywhere across the NHS. So together we
think this is a plan that is realistic and practical and costed and detailed
and phased and yes ambitious. Some of the improvements that patients will see will
happen quite quickly. New genetic tests for children with cancer this year, new
options to see your GP, online radical reforms to avoid 30 million outpatient
visits, guaranteed support for older people at home in the community. Some of
these changes are going to take a bit longer - halving maternity related deaths
by 2025, and some are going to require staged action over the next 10 years. As
extra staff come online, we seriously begin to tackle health inequalities in
some of our most deprived communities and for example we're able to increase
the proportion of people getting an early cancer diagnosis where their
survival prospects are greatest from a half now to three-quarters in a decade's
time. We estimate that the combined effects of these changes could save up
to half a million lives as we see further gains in the big killers and
disablers of the people of England, heart attacks and strokes, cancer, lung problems,
many other conditions. But it's also about addressing unmet need, particularly
in services, such as learning disability services and autism, mental health
services, services that for too long have been squeezed from the national debate
and unsupported by the NHS. And all of this of course is only going to be
possible thanks to the brilliant NHS staff. The fact is we are the largest
employer of skilled professionals in the world.
We've got 1.3 million people who are day in, day out, looking after friends,
families, neighbours and we're going to need to better support them and we're
going to need more of them and so that's why it's right that the majority of the
extra 20 and a half billion in real terms, we're going to be getting, is going
to be used to fund current and our future staff,
and NHS improvement will be leading the detailed implementation work to ensure
that happens. So patients will benefit, staff will be supported and for
taxpayers the public we're determined to ensure that every penny is wisely spent.
Fortunately we've got a lot going for us, we've got our could be the best value
Health Service in the world already. The German health system costs one-third
more per person than the NHS, the French spend twice as much as we do on
administration and NHS productivity has been rising faster than that of the rest
of the UK economy. But we do still have opportunity for further efficiency not
only to ensure that the NHS gets good value out of the procurement deals and
medicines bill, cutting administration cost by another seven hundred million
pounds, but also an NHS that contributes to the economic success of this country,
helping people stay healthy and get back to work, a vibrant life sciences sector
creating jobs and growth and not loading onto the costs of our exporting
businesses, through attacks on jobs - continental European style, the cost of
running the National Health Service. So Prime Minister and making the important
commitment that you did, you set us last summer six tests for the NHS long term
plan which today we deliver on and you also gave us the opportunity to identify
potential legislative changes, for consideration by Government and
Parliament, and again today we do that. So having published the plan today today
the work begins to implement it. We're going to be setting out the funding
increases that every part of the country will see in the next few days and then
working with local clinicians and patients groups across the NHS, on what
this will mean in every part of the country. And as we do that we believe
that this will help us put the NHS on track fit for the future for the next
decade. An NHS that works for my parents generation, with more than a million
retirees over the next five years and a NHS that works for our
children's generation, recognising that one in three girls born today in the NHS
are likely to live to more than 100. So there are big changes here, there are
practical changes here, there are changes that are going to be widely supported
across the NHS and today we get on with them. Thank you.