Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England
The launch of the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan is a welcome step forward. It sets out a more strategic approach to tackling the nation’s poor health by prioritising prevention and outlining clear policies to support the Department’s three major shifts: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
While there is much to commend, there are also some notable omissions and missed opportunities – particularly in tackling alcohol harm and addressing the obesity crisis more effectively. The British Liver Trust contributed to the consultation process, working with a range of patient and clinical groups to develop a comprehensive, co-created submission. This ensured that the views of people affected by liver disease and liver cancer were communicated to ministers and officials involved in drafting the plan.
In our submission and discussions with ministers, we stressed the need for all people living with liver conditions to have equal access to services and care at the point of need – and to be treated with dignity and fairness.
The driving force behind the 10 Year Plan is the desire to improve public health, reduce demand on the NHS and other services, and support a healthier workforce. The economic and social benefits of this approach are clear, and it lays the groundwork for a more cost-effective health system in the long term. Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting, has shown a welcomed commitment to making services more patient-centred and delivering care closer to home.
Pamela Healy OBE, Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust, said:
“90% of liver disease is preventable, so the British Liver Trust welcomes the Government’s focus on prevention in the new 10 Year Plan. However, while the announcement of a new healthy food standard in partnership with industry is certainly a positive move to address the obesity crisis, a major cause of fatty liver disease; we are concerned that there may not be enough in today’s Plan to move from sickness to prevention and really effectively address alcohol harm in our society.
Alcohol-specific deaths have continued to surge in the UK with over 10,000 people dying from alcohol-related causes in 2022. Three quarters of these deaths are attributed to alcohol-related liver disease, an alarming 31% increase in just three years. Alcohol has become increasingly affordable, acceptable and readily available within our society.
If the Government is serious about prevention, then we need a national strategy to address alcohol harm. This should include measures such as advertising restrictions, fiscal measures to address affordability and early identification and support for people who are drinking above the recommended guidelines. The inclusion of alcohol labelling is to be welcomed, and we look forward to contributing to the consultation.
We are delighted that the Government has set out a comprehensive plan to deliver a full range of community Neighbourhood Health Services and Centres to people’s doorsteps – supporting early detection of illness and reducing pressure on GPs and A&E. This has the potential to better support the needs and lives of both liver disease patients and liver cancer patients. Three quarters of people with liver disease are diagnosed too late in a hospital setting, so this plan to move services from hospital to community should support earlier diagnosis and intervention and therefore is welcomed.”
We look forward to the publication of the NHS Workforce Plan this autumn, which will be crucial in supporting the delivery of these ambitions.
Addressing Alcohol Harm
We were disappointed to learn that proposals for partial advertising restrictions on alcohol – intended to bring it in line with high-fat, salt and sugar (HFSS foods) – as well as plans for MUP (minimum unit pricing), have been dropped from the final plan. The absence of a National Alcohol Strategy, a complete ban on alcohol advertising, and the continued exclusion of MUP represent a serious missed opportunity. The plan fails to directly address alcohol-specific deaths, which continue to rise.
This said, the introduction of new alcohol labelling standards is a step forward, and support for the no- and low-alcohol market is welcome.
Fatty Liver Disease and Obesity
The plan confirms a new healthy food standard, developed in partnership with industry, which aims to reduce daily calorie intake by just 50 calories per person. This modest reduction could lift 340,000 children and 2 million adults out of obesity – an outcome we strongly support. Large retailers are expected to contribute through product reformulation, pricing incentives, and the promotion of healthier food options.
Despite this, we face an escalating obesity crisis. Nearly one in five children leave primary school obese, and two-thirds of adults in the UK are overweight or obese. Obesity is now the second leading cause of cancer in the UK and contributes to 13 serious health conditions, including fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.
The Government also plans to double the number of referrals to the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme, offering support to an additional 125,000 people each year. It will also launch a new NHS Points Scheme to incentivise healthier lifestyles. These measures have the potential to drive meaningful change if delivered effectively.
Some of our key policy recommendations adopted by the Government today
- Expand access to weight management services for patients with fatty liver disease.
- Personalised care plans.
- Introduction of alcohol labelling.
- Treating patients closer to home.
- More diagnostic technology in community and primary settings.
- Ensuring patient-centred services.
- Single patient records – NHS app to integrate primary and secondary health information.
- Bring forward population-wide measures to reshape the unhealthy food and drink environment (e.g. HFSS reformulation, health labelling, marketing restrictions).
- Improved information sharing between hospitals and GP practices.
- Addressing health inequalities.
- Mitigating digital exclusion risk.
Other measures
The plan includes several further developments which may benefit patients in the future;
- Creating a single patient record accessible via the NHS App, allowing patients to book appointments, communicate with healthcare professionals, receive advice, and self-refer to services.
- Making the NHS App a digital front door to services, offering a “doctor in your pocket” with 24/7 virtual assistance.
- Safely deploying AI across the NHS to improve care delivery, with all hospitals expected to be AI-enabled during the plan’s timeframe.
- Launching the ‘HealthStore’ platform to provide patients with access to approved digital tools for condition management.
- Introducing genomic testing for all newborns.
- Doubling the number of people offered a Personal Health Budget by 2028–2029, reaching one million people by 2030, and making it universally available by 2035.
- Delivering 10,000 cancer vaccines through clinical trials within the next five years.
- The government will support “innovative community-level innovations where they have shown promise in reducing alcohol harm” such as peer-led support groups, coaching, and mutual aid networks.