The 10 Year Health Plan for England: What it means for healthcare providers

From Hospital to Community 

“If the NHS does not feel like a single, coordinated, patient-orientated service, that is for a simple reason: it is not one.” – this statement fronts the first pillar set out by the executive summary and marks the move to bring healthcare closer to home. The plan emphasises the need to move from silos and fragmented care, with a hospital-centric focus, towards a neighbourhood model, encompassing multiple health and care professionals and based inside homes and communities. This change will affect every sector across healthcare. General Practice will expected to expand access, offer same day appointments and manage demand through multiple channels, with a focus on the NHS app. Reduced reliance on hospital care can expect to see funding fall in this area, redistributed to out-of-hospital teams instead.   

Following on from the original publication of the plan, the government has set out guidance on the structure and operation of neighbourhood health models via the Neighbourhood Health Framework in March 2026, followed by the restructure of ICBs in England in April 2026.  Healthcare providers are aware that they are expected to deliver the “left shift” detailed in the Framework, with a set deadline of March 2029.  

Restructuring care around neighbourhood models will required a different operating model from the existing system in place, and it will be vital that these local services can see and share their data with healthcare providers across the patient journey. General practice, as the front door, will need unified triage and navigation systems which coordinate increased demand, with the ability to move workload between practices in their neighbourhood. Secondary care departments will need to be able to access the widest reach in sharing documents to practices whilst urgent care centres can lift the load with patient self-triage. An overall view of  a patient’s background and treatment plans can make all the difference when it comes to providing them with the best possible care. Whilst neighbourhood models are still in pilot, healthcare providers are awaiting more clarity on the exact structure.  Having correct tooling in place could be the key to successful delivery. 

From Analogue to Digital 

The NHS is also committing to a comprehensive digital transformation, a move “from bricks to clicks”. The plan recognises that whilst the NHS has access to “world-leading” data, it remains a technological laggard and change is required to reach its potential as a leader.  It places the NHS app as central to this shift, functioning to empower patients to self-manage access, prescriptions and care planning.  Additional guidance about Ambient Voice Technology tooling further demonstrates the NHS commitment to embedded digital solutions throughout the patient journey. 

This digital overhaul will streamline administrative tasks, improve communication between providers, and offer patients faster and easier access to health services. Primary and urgent care providers can place patients at the centre of their consultations with Scribe adoption, without losing consultation note detail, whilst GP teams can take advantage of virtual medical receptionist tools or AI document summarisation and coding support to reduce workloads. Patients in 111 call queues will also see the benefit of the increase in technology throughout the healthcare ecosystem, with the ability to self-manage call status through a secure SMS link. 

This is of the utmost importance in the NHS space, where resources are forever over stretched and time is one of the most sought-after commodities. Giving healthcare staff back minutes or hours in their day by cutting down on administrative burned means more face time with patients and less burnout, and patients benefit from a renewed empowerment over their own healthcare 

From Sickness to Prevention 

Startingly statistics around childhood obesity and life expectancy inequity appears to have prompted perhaps the most forward-thinking shift in the plan – a focus on preventing illness rather than merely addressing it. Core tenets of the proposal suggests a holistic approach, with initiatives tackling teen nicotine use, caffeine drinks and alcohol consumption for a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to healthcare.  

Healthcare providers reading this pillar, whilst invested in the outcome, may be tempted to see this shift as based in government policy, rather than an easily actionable point for them to assimilate into their daily operations.  However, there are many applications where changes to existing technology can display adherence to this approach. Health screenings and widespread vaccination campaigns, supported by technology such as AI coding or cross-organisational patient communication, can allow primary care teams to act more quickly, or more effective treatment, earlier. This in turn can reduce demand of critical conditions in urgent care departments, reduce hospital admissions and address life expectancy inequity.  

Furthermore, by improving access to primary care, patients can be directed to the right person at the right time, through digital front door tools, which means GP appointments can be allocated more easily to those with a need, whilst other patients can be directed to pharmacies, self-care or A&E. 

The NHS Digital Transformation and the Future of Healthcare 

The Prime Minister presenting the plan, Sir Keir Starmer, underscored the urgency, stating the NHS needs to "reform or die." Making history as the first Health Secretary to become UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham continued his advocacy for a neighbourhood view of healthcare, introducing plans for a National Care Service, and proposing a “Manchester-modelled” view of regional leadership, headed up by ICB leads. 

What healthcare leaders will now be looking for is clarity on how their current operating models will fit into the direction set out for NHS care delivery, and how multi-disciplinary teams (and data) can work together to meet neighbourhood objectives. There is the potential for shifts to improve the lives of patients and care professionals, as long as providers can turn demand into capacity as one concrete implementation of the plan’s core tenets. Our Strategy Director, Ciaron Hoye, former CIO at Birmingham & Solihull ICB, discussed how this could be transformational for primary care and patients alike, saying “Patients need confidence that asking for help will lead somewhere. Staff need the capacity and support to respond. The opportunity is a neighbourhood that gets people to the right help and gives the workforce the capacity to provide it.” 

Looking Ahead

The 10 Year Health Plan for England has become a call to action. It challenges organisations and healthcare professionals to rethink how health services can and should be delivered and start investing in their future.  However, in our OneAdvanced Trends Report, less than half of survey respondents stated feeling aligned with the plan within their own organisation.

With a goal to transform the nation’s health outcomes, and a pressure to deliver new modes of working, healthcare providers can begin to invest in small, actionable steps, such as mapping demand and capacity conflicts and auditing existing technology for cross-organisational functionality. 

As a provider of health-specific software ranging across primary, secondary and urgent care, as well as private healthcare providers, we are here to help you navigate these pillars via our IQ Health platform, backed by the expertise of 16 clinical teams members, and with quarterly updates and releases across the healthcare ecosystem.