These are just some of the ways that we want to improve care for patients over the next ten years:

How we will deliver the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan
To ensure that the NHS can achieve the ambitious improvements we want to see for patients over the next ten years, the NHS Long Term Plan also sets out how we think we can overcome the challenges that the NHS faces, such as staff shortages and growing demand for services, by:

• 1. Doing things differently: we will give people more control over their own health and the care they receive, encourage more collaboration between GPs, their teams and community services, as ‘primary care networks’, to increase the services they can provide jointly, and increase the focus on NHS organisations working with their local partners, as ‘Integrated Care Systems’, to plan and deliver services which meet the needs of their communities.
• 2. Preventing illness and tackling health inequalities: the NHS will increase its contribution to tackling some of the most significant causes of ill health, including new action to help people stop smoking, overcome drinking problems and avoid Type 2 diabetes, with a particular focus on the communities and groups of people most affected by these problems.
• 3. Backing our workforce: we will continue to increase the NHS workforce, training and recruiting more professionals – including thousands more clinical placements for undergraduate nurses, hundreds more medical school places, and more routes into the NHS such as apprenticeships. We will also make the NHS a better place to work, so more staff stay in the NHS and feel able to make better use of their skills and experience for patients.
• 4. Making better use of data and digital technology: we will provide more convenient access to services and health information for patients, with the new NHS App as a digital ‘front door’, better access to digital tools and patient records for staff, and improvements to the planning and delivery of services based on the analysis of patient and population data.
• 5. Getting the most out of taxpayers’ investment in the NHS: we will continue working with doctors and other health professionals to identify ways to reduce duplication in how clinical services are delivered, make better use of the NHS’ combined buying power to get commonly-used products for cheaper, and reduce spend on administration.

Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), which are groups of local NHS organisations working together with each other, local councils and other partners, now need to develop and implement their own strategies for the next five years.

These strategies will set out how they intend to take the ambitions that the NHS Long Term Plan details, and work together to turn them into local action to improve services and the health and wellbeing of the communities they serve – building on the work they have already been doing.

This means that over the next few months, whether you are NHS staff, a patient or a member of the public, you will have the opportunity to help shape what the NHS Long Term Plan means for your area, and how the services you use or work in need to change and improve.

To help with this, we will work with local Healthwatch groups to support NHS teams in ensuring that the views of patients and the public are heard, and Age UK will be leading work with other charities to provide extra opportunities to hear from people with specific needs or concerns.