New era for NHS "boldest NHS vision in a generation" but "foundations are built on sand”
The Prime Minister is launching the government’s 10 Year Health Plan to bring the NHS closer to home, but one health sector entrepreneur and NHS non-exec, while saying it is the “boldest NHS vision in a generation”, warned that “the foundations are built on sand.”
He added that the one issue with the plan and biggest risk is that "social care is still on the sidelines. Without full integration, this is not system reform. It is a half-built structure that ends at the hospital car park with nowhere to park".
In the plan, neighbourhood Health Services will be rolled out across the country, bringing diagnostics, mental health, post-op, rehab and nursing to people’s doorsteps.
Neighbourhood health centres will house services under one roof, open at evenings and weekends. The plan for Change will rebuild the NHS to train thousands more family doctors, transform hospital outpatient appointments and provide personalised care plans for complex needs.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “The NHS should be there for everyone, whenever they need it. But we inherited a health system in crisis, addicted to a sticking plaster approach, and unable to face up to the challenges we face now, let alone in the future. That ends now. Because it’s reform or die.
"Our 10 Year Health Plan will fundamentally rewire and future-proof our NHS so that it puts care on people’s doorsteps, harnesses game-changing tech and prevents illness in the first place. That means giving everyone access to GPs, nurses and wider support all under one roof in their neighbourhood - rebalancing our health system so that it fits around patients’ lives, not the other way round.
"This is not an overnight fix, but our Plan for Change is already turning the tide on years of decline with over four million extra appointments, 1,900 more GPs and waiting lists at their lowest level for two years. But there’s more to come. This government is giving patients easier, quicker and more convenient care, wherever they live.”
Sam Alsop-Hall, Co-Founder at Clive Henry Group and an NHS non-executive director, commented: "This is the boldest NHS vision in a generation. Care delivered in neighbourhoods, services under one roof, and a system built around people, not hospitals. The ambition is clear. The challenge is delivery.
"Without proper funding and genuine local autonomy, it will stall. Controlled from the centre, it will fail. Setbacks are inevitable. That is not failure, it is the reality of meaningful reform. This is a marathon, not a media cycle or an electoral one. Success means restoring trust, rebalancing access and putting care where it belongs.
“Yet the biggest risk remains unaddressed. Social care is still on the sidelines. Without full integration, this is not system reform. It is a half-built structure that ends at the hospital car park with nowhere to park. The foundations are built on sand.”
