In a speech given to the Royal College of Physicians, UK health secretary Sajid Javid has shared that the government’s planned ‘Road to Recovery’ would have a new focus on prevention, under a set of ‘radical’ new NHS reforms.
GPs will be tasked with preventing ill health under the reforms, with Javid outlining three “radical but logical next steps” in his speech, centring on ‘Prevention, Personalisation and Performance’. The health secretary emphasised that it is vital “we prevent new people from joining waiting lists, by putting as much effort as we can in keeping people well, before they get ill”. “The irrefutable logic is to act now,” said Javid, “to stop risks and costs building up in the future”.
The health secretary emphasised that primary care “represents one of the very best ways of preventing and managing illness in the community”.
Javid outlined his steps in ‘Prevention’, stating this route was “how we build, not just a ‘national hospital service’ but a true ‘National Health Service’”, emphasising the potential of the NHS App in preventative measures and utilising “tools and services like a new digital health check”.
Javid continued: “Primary care and all our GPs, pharmacists and dentists must be at the heart of this new agenda on prevention,” acknowledging that primary care is currently facing too much strain in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to “be proactive on prevention – even though it wants to”.
The health secretary described his second step, ‘Personalisation’: “how we deliver more personalised care, empower patients and fulfil the promise of the technological leaps we’ve seen throughout the pandemic”.
Javid’s final step, ‘Performance’, was outlined as “how we make sure the NHS can deliver the British people the very best healthcare in the world”.
Javid’s review of primary care was expected to form a part of the speech, but was not mentioned. The review was initially supposed to be given at the end of February.
