Where is UK healthcare heading?

A healthy view on health: the NHS Long Term Plan

Whinging about the NHS is a time-honoured British tradition. Rarely is it a productive discussion, underpinned with expert research and implementable policy, and ending with a sense of optimism. The Future of Healthcare conference, organised by the New Statesman in London’s County Hall, was one of these rare occasions.  

Discussion was guided by the framework of the NHS Long Term Plan. The panels and speakers discussed preventative healthcare practices, gender bias in healthcare, research and innovation, and care for the elderly and disabled. Speakers included Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the LibDems, and Professor Sir Michael Marmot, director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity.   

The key theme of the morning was long-term healthcare. MP Sir Ed Davey spoke about social care. That’s the care provided to a person who needs support with daily tasks due to illness or disability. Unpaid social care is worth £132 billion in the UK and supporting unpaid carers via an expanded and renewed carers fund would be hugely cost effective, argued the MP. This discussion was expanded in the last panel before lunch. Representatives of major UK charities Carers UK, Carers Trust and the Nuffield Trust discussed how the government has failed to implement cohesive policies supporting carers. They expressed hope that the new report on social care commissioned by the government would drum up more support but were unhappy with the far-off deadline (2028) and mentioned how many reports already exist. I was moved by their call for social pressure and the optimism they maintained.  

The first panel, on preventative healthcare, tied in neatly with Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s talk. Both made the point that disease needs to be stemmed at its source, namely, deprivation and poverty. MP Helen Morgan put it quite succinctly – additional funding into prevention of tobacco, alcohol addiction, and poor nutrition without addressing housing inequalities and poverty is “pouring money into a bottomless pit”. 

However, the panel was divided on the merits of centralised government authority over community-led healthcare initiatives. Marmot pointed out that inequality has increased, and health outcomes for the most deprived in the UK have worsened. He argued, convincingly, that excess deaths caused only by the exacerbation of inequality since austerity was introduced amount to 148,000. 

A common sentiment throughout the conference was that health should not be a political idea – good health has societal and economic benefits for everybody. 

Gender health gap, AI and population health were also discussed

I was lucky enough to attend the New Statesman’s Future of Healthcare conference, too. I managed to attend three panels: Investing in the 51%: How can levelling up the gender health gap boost Britain’s economy?; Fit for the future: How can public-private sector collaboration ensure the 10 Year Plan delivers healthier, longer lives for the British people?; and Putting tech to work: How can the UK become a leader in the early adoption of new healthcare technologies? It was a real treat of a day – an intersection of Felix with my personal career aspirations in the realm of public health and epidemiology. 

The first was a particularly poignant topic for me. The panel discussed the UK’s position as having the 12th largest gender health gap globally, noting that closing this gap by 2040 could boost the economy by nearly £39 billion and provide every British woman with approximately nine and a half additional days of good health per year. They explored what concrete actions policymakers and healthcare leaders could take to reduce these inequalities and unlock the full economic potential of the UK’s female workforce, including continuing to push women into leadership positions.  

Moving on to adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), I was very intent on listening to Dr Allison Gardner MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for AI. The panel discussed how new technology and innovation provide a crucial lifeline for the NHS, with the potential to streamline care pathways, reduce waiting times, and greatly enhance diagnostic accuracy, although to be honest at times the panel felt like it was speaking just to breathe.  

My personal favourite was the last panel discussing the intersection of public and private sectors for the future of population health in this country. I found the perspectives of two Public Health professors, one now a Labour MP, Dr Cooper. The emphasis on all-party policies for our NHS was crucial.  

The a day was a treat and a real privilege.