Reducing stillbirths and mother and child deaths during birth by 50%
Women, particularly those from a BAME community and/or deprived background will see greater continuity of care from their midwife as this has been shown to reduce the chances of losing a baby. Pre-term birth clinics will be encouraged to help those at risk, including younger mothers and those from deprived backgrounds. The long-term plan also talks about minimising unnecessary intervention, improving foetal heartbeat monitoring and reducing smoking during pregnancy.
Preventing up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases over the next 10 years
Cardiovascular diseases are seen as the single biggest area where the NHS can save lives over the next decade. The public will be offered increased opportunities to be tested for high blood pressure and other high-risk conditions. There will also be expanded access to genetic testing for familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), which causes early heart attacks. Defibrillator networks will be built to improve survival from out of hospital cardiac arrest and there is a goal of 85% of eligible patients accessing cardiac rehabilitation by 2028.
Saving 55,000 more lives a year by diagnosing more cancers early and improving outcomes for children and young people
The threshold for referral by GPs will be lowered, and diagnosis and treatment accelerated. There will be new tests for bowel cancer, mobile lung cancer screening units and rapid diagnostic centres that yield a result on the same day. The age at which people are offered bowel cancer screening will be lowered from 60 to 50. There will be use of personalised and risk stratified screening and the NHS will begin to test family members of cancer patients for the disease. All children with cancer will be offered genetic testing to enable more comprehensive and precise diagnosis and access to more personalised treatments. Advanced CAR-T and proton-beam therapy will be available to children in England.
Action will be taken to tackle the causes of morbidity and preventable deaths in people with a learning disability and for autistic people
Launching the 10-year plan, Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said learning disabilities and autism had previously gone unsupported by the NHS. The plan aims to increase uptake of health checks by people with a learning disability and a specific health check for people with autism is being piloted. There will be action to tackle over-medication and staff will receive information and training on supporting people with a learning disability and/or autism. Their condition will be digitally flagged in their patient record by 2023/24. NHS England is also aiming to reduce waiting times for specialist services to facilitate speedier diagnosis and to increase investment in community support services.
Spending at least £2.3bn more a year on mental health care, including increased funding for children and young people’s mental health
An estimated 345,000 more children and young people will be treated via NHS funded mental health services and school or college-based mental health support teams over the next five years. Over the same period, an extra 380,000 more adults will be offered access to talking therapies. By 2023/24, there will also be community-based care available for 370,000 people with severe mental illness each year. Crisis care, which NHS bosses say is a serious weakness, will be improved by people of all ages being able to ring the NHS 111 helpline at any time and be directed to support. Mental health liaison services will be available in all A&E departments and ambulance staff will be trained to respond effectively to people experiencing a mental health crisis.
Expanding support for perinatal mental health conditions
An extra 24,000 women with moderate to severe perinatal mental health difficulties and a personality disorder diagnosis will get care each year by 2023/24, on top of the extra 30,000 women getting specialist help by 2020/21. Care provided by specialist perinatal mental health services will be expanded to be available from preconception to 24 months after birth. Partners of women accessing specialist perinatal mental health services and maternity outreach clinics will also be offered assessment for their mental health.
