Today (3 July), the Government has released the Fit For the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England. While this Plan focuses on the health system as a whole, and not neonatal services specifically, it sets out how the Government will approach developing and delivering health services over the coming decade which will have an inevitable impact on the care babies born premature or sick receive.
The Plan sets out three key shifts:
Analogue to digital
Hospital to community
Sickness to prevention
These are underpinned by a raft of commitments which focus on development of the workforce, reworking financial flows and enabling innovation to drive reform.
The Plan also provides some additional insight into the recently announced independent investigation into maternity and neonatal services, including that the work of the planned new Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, to be chaired by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, will inform the development of a new national maternity and neonatal action plan which is intended to lead to “rapid improvement of maternity and neonatal quality and safety”.
It also sets out that from November, a new Maternity Outcomes Signal System (MOSS) will be in place across Trusts, which will use near-real time data to identify if higher than expected rates of stillbirth, neonatal death and brain injury are occurring. This will allow for emerging safety issues to be identified and action taken swiftly to address them.
Caroline Lee-Davey, Bliss Chief Executive said: ‘’The quality of care our health service provides is fundamental for ensuring every baby born premature or sick has the best chance of survival and quality of life. While we welcome the Government’s ambitious vision, more detailed plans must follow to understand what this means for neonatal care.
‘’Indeed, the publication of the 10 Year Plan comes just a week after the Government announced a rapid review of maternity and neonatal services and will be followed in the coming months by the final report of the Thirlwall Inquiry. It is vital that alongside the ambition to innovate and transform for the future, there remains a tight focus on ensuring services today provide safe, high quality care in line with nationally endorsed standards.
‘’We welcome the Plan’s focus on neighbourhood health and the exciting opportunities this may present, particularly for the development of neonatal outreach services – but we urge the Government not to lose sight of the importance of acute hospital-based services. For many babies, a long hospital admission is crucial for ensuring their survival, and long-term health and well-being. We know that for babies to have the best outcomes, their families must be able to be partners in delivering their care, but most services are lacking infrastructure such as parent accommodation to deliver care in a way which keeps families together. In setting out its intention to transform the health system as a whole, the Government must not miss the opportunity to set this right.’’
