National Voices Daily Insight: Making the NHS work for us all

Today’s Daily Insight is guest written by Sarah Sweeney, head of policy at National Voices as part of a National Voices “takeover” of HSJ. Find out more here.

In a rollercoaster week of politics, we heard news on Friday that the prime minister asked Jeremy Hunt to replace Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor.

Just 48 hours before this, Mr Hunt told HSJ editor Alastair McLellan and the audience at an event held as part of the Shoreham Literary Festival that he believed spending on the NHS needed to rise.

When asked what one “practical thing” would make the biggest difference, Jeremy Hunt said: “Workforce”. He then went on to elaborate and say: “We need a system that, whoever the health secretary is, whoever the chancellor is, we’re always training enough doctors.”

At National Voices, workforce shortages are one of the top concerns that health and care charities in our membership have currently, and we often hear examples about how this has an impact upon the health and care people receive.

We know that Mr Hunt has previously criticised the Treasury for blocking the publication of a long-term workforce plan, and we hope that he will put his money where his mouth is in his new role and find the cash needed to deliver on a fully funded workforce plan.

Standing together

Over the coming week, you’ll see comment pieces in HSJ from many of our members and partners which challenge system leaders to think differently about what is needed to repair the NHS, including our chief executive Charlotte Augst’s piece yesterday which calls on NHS leaders and patients to stand together.

While government funding to address shortages in the workforce would go a long way to improve the care that people receive, we also need to think outside the box and explore different models of care. As Ms Augst says: “We need models that understand that ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t actually work for many people. That we need to personalise in order to equalise.”

Our sector understands that health exists in a wider context within your life. Whether someone can heat their home, feed their children or hang on to hope for a better day will directly impact their health and their ability to engage with healthcare.

Health in the context of life requires healthcare to be delivered in the context of partnerships. The cost of living crisis makes this more urgent than ever. We hope that HSJ readers will take time to reflect over the coming week on how you can invest in partnerships with people, communities and their organisations. Together, we can shape health and care, for the better.