Millions to receive health-monitoring smartwatches as part of 10-year plan to save NHS
20 October 2024, 08:38
Millions of people are set to receive health-monitoring smartwatches as part of Labour's 10-year plan to save the NHS.
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Wearable technology will be used to help people monitor their health, including tracking blood pressure, glucose spikes and how cancer patients are responding to treatment.
It will create a single health record that patients can view through the NHS app.
The move comes as Health Secretary Wes Streeting is set to invite patients and NHS staff to take part in a "national conversation" to shape the government's 10-year plan for the service next week.
Some plans have already been set out, including the creation of new neighbourhood health centres.
The centres will be based closer to people's homes than their nearest hospital so people can see GPs, district nurses, care workers and other medical professionals in the same building.
Read more: Chancellor set to invest billions in NHS as part of 'biggest reform since 1948' in upcoming Budget
The Department for Health and Social Care said this would stop patients "having to go from pillar to post" and enable them to be treated for minor injuries "without having to wait for hours in overstretched hospitals".
Combining GP surgeries with other neighbourhood services has been tried on several occasions before, including in parts of London in the 1920s and 1930s prior to the creation of the NHS.
Announcing the consultation on Sunday, Mr Streeting said: "If we want to save the things we love about the NHS, then we have to change it.
"Our 10-year health plan will turn the NHS on its head - transforming it into a neighbourhood health service - powered by cutting-edge technology that helps us stay healthy and out of hospital.
"We will rebuild the health service around what patients tell us they need."
Mr Streeting stressed the importance of patients' relationship with their GP, saying it was one of the things the government wanted to protect along with free healthcare at the point of need and shorter waiting times for appointments.
"Our 10-year health plan will preserve the NHS's traditional values in a modern setting," he said.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) welcomed plans to shift treatment from hospitals to communities, but general secretary Nicola Ranger said the NHS "simply does not have the nursing numbers to deliver it".
She said: "Without new investment, the number of community nurses will stay on track to be half what it was two decades ago.
"Nursing staff are ready to help deliver the modernisation our health service needs, but staff are overworked and chronically undervalued.
"We were the only NHS profession to reject the Government's pay award. Reforms must come with the investment needed to turn around nursing."
The NHS is understood to be in line for a real-terms budget increase when the Chancellor announces her spending plans on October 30, although government sources have said suggestions of a 3-4% increase are not accurate.
Health policy experts have suggested such an increase would be necessary to deliver on Labour's plans to improve the NHS and bring waiting lists down.
