Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an estimate of the number of additional hospitals that will be required to accommodate the predicted population rise over the next 25 years; and if he will make a statement.
Ben Gummer
NHS planning must be centred around the changing health needs of patients and the population. Because of this, the way the NHS delivers health and care in 25 years’ time may look very different from the way health and care is delivered today.
The NHS will take advantage of science and technology to deliver healthcare in different ways, in care settings appropriate to people’s needs. This will include hospitals but also new primary and community settings and in people’s homes, where that suits patients and their families. The NHS will of course also need to change the way healthcare is delivered as people live longer lives, with longer term, more complex, multiple health issues. Many of these needs will be best met by supporting people to live healthier as well as longer lives, in their own homes and communities, rather than admitting them to a hospital. The Government has set a priority to transform out-of-hospital care in every community.
The NHS Five Year Forward View sets out how the NHS will need to develop to deliver care in new and innovative ways. Different local health communities are being supported as part of the New Care Models Vanguard programme to develop a small number of new care delivery options and models. It is likely that the concept of distinctive health settings, such as within the hospital sector, or within community or primary care, will become less important, as healthcare is delivered in closer partnership with people and coordinated around their needs.
Allowing successful innovations to be spread throughout the NHS is integral to the design of the healthcare delivery models the Vanguard programme is developing. This will facilitate the continual development of new NHS services, working in partnership with the people using them.
