Two things happened last weekend that were, for me, especially significant.
The first was that I spoke at a celebration of 150 years of Stroud General Hospital. As a GP I’ve worked there regularly for more than 30 years, and I know what a brilliant service it provides for communities across the district. I also know how we have fended off the threats and, against the odds, developed and improved provision over the years. We are very lucky to have the staff we do, and the amazing support of the League of Friends.
I very much hope that with the government’s focus on bringing healthcare closer to communities, we will continue to see the hospital go from strength to strength.
The celebration was timely as it came just after the government announced the new 10 Year Health Plan, which is intended as the blueprint for the transformational change we need in the NHS. The three main shifts are from:
- hospital to community
- analogue to digital
- sickness to prevention
In other words the focus is on helping people live healthier lives, intervene sooner when things begin to go wrong, and keep things local where we can, rather than always prioritising the big hospitals.
The other thing that I especially welcome is about putting right one of the best initiatives of the last Labour, but which was largely destroyed by the austerity policies of the Conservative governments since 2010.
This is the commitment to a new Family Hubs to replace and update the old Sure Start Children’s Centres that improved the lives and life chances of hundreds of thousands of families across the country. There were many benefits of family centres, from better long term child development and educational attainment, through improved health, and greater employment, as well as the harder to measure benefits of social cohesion, family support, and financial savings for the care sector and elsewhere.
It’s really good news, and the creation of 1000 of these new centres in the next three years will be truly transformative.
Coming as they did, on the first anniversary of the election last year, these feel like the government is beginning to get into its stride.
