People will only go to hospital in future when it is essential with health services being delivered in the community under new plans for the way the NHS is run in Wales.
Announcing the plans, the Welsh Government said it wanted to start seeing changes within three years and significant change within a decade.
Its vision for the NHS in Wales is being backed by a £100 million transformation fun that will be used to develop integrated health and social care services in the community with an emphasis on prevention.
Regional partnership boards, made up of councils, health boards and voluntary representatives, will be tasked with developing new ways of care locally to integrate health and social care – with the best ideas scaled up for use across the NHS in Wales.
There is also a commitment to have a ‘continuous dialogue’ with the public about future changes.
Other changes include the introduction of a centralised Welsh NHS executive overseeing health boards which will make decisions on national issues.
Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: “This year we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the NHS, which was born here in Wales. We remain hugely proud of its achievements and all who work within it. However, it is clear that much has changed in those 70 years. With an increase in life expectancy and our continued public health challenges the service is facing increasing pressure.
“Today’s plan sets out our vision for the future – it looks at how we will adapt to meet these future challenges and transform the way we deliver health and social care. We will deliver that change and remain true to the core values of the NHS to provide free healthcare for all.”
Conservative health spokeswoman Angela Burns AM said: “No one will disagree with many of the sentiments or aims expressed in this plan, particularly the desired and necessary whole system approach we need to see in Wales for the future of health and social care.
“We are hugely supportive of the value and principles that our NHS should adhere to, but we need clear plans for delivery and this document contains very few tangible targets or commitments for the Welsh Government, health boards, regional partnership boards and local authorities to work towards.
She added: “If this new plan is to have any impact in driving the transformational change it describes, then we need the Labour Government to take ownership and accept accountability for the journey ahead – something they’ve failed to do so over the past two decades in Wales.”
Plaid Cymru health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth was also critical at a lack of firm proposals in the plan.
He said: “Treating more people closer to home and outside of hospitals has been the stated aim of Labour policy for well over a decade yet they have failed to translate this aspiration into anything concrete.
“In fact, the only changes we’ve seen have involved the opposite which has included services moving away from local communities due to staff shortages.”
BMA Cymru Wales, which represents doctors, gave the plan a cautious welcome. Its chair Dr David Bailey said: “This plan shows that the Welsh Government is moving in the right direction and taking steps to ensure that health and social services in Wales are sustainable in the future.
He added: “Ultimately actions speak louder than words and the onus is now on the Welsh Government and health boards to work with doctors and other frontline staff on the details to make this plan a reality.”
Labour are offering this too little to late, I personally cant see this working. It sounds like we are going backwards to the 60s. As they say everything goes full circle.
Time for proportional representation – none of the current political parties in the UK offer any way forward.
They are all failing UK residents – no party offers any sensible,sustainable ideas and all have no strong leadership.
People mock Trump and what is happening in USA – but we in the UK are no better off.
Politics in the UK are in meltdown.