The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published its ‘Major conditions strategy: case for change and our strategic framework’, seeking to “evolve” health and care delivery by improving outcomes and better meeting the needs of the population.
The strategy focuses on six key conditions: cardiovascular disease (including stroke and diabetes), cancers, musculoskeletal disorders, mental ill health, dementia and chronic respiratory disease. It highlights how, according to recent data, these conditions account for over 60 percent of ill health and early death in the UK.
Setting out an approach to “address the challenge over the life course” the the strategy notes that “it is not the full answer, but a framework for change.” It will focus on how to tackle the principal lifestyle drivers of disease and ill-health, such as smoking and obesity, with a view to establish several priority areas for “ongoing development” ahead of the final strategy.
At present, the strategy will prioritise change in five areas. These include rebalancing proactive prevention by managing personalised risk factors; embedding early diagnosis and treatment delivery within communities; managing multiple conditions effectively, embedding generalist and specialist skills within teams and organisations; seeking closer alignment and integration between physical and mental health services; and shaping services and support “around the lives of people.”
The overall aim, across these priority areas, is to “work to reduce inequalities in health outcomes, so the community you live in does not make it more likely you will experience ill health.”
The strategy can be accessed in full here.
Looking at other recent news around strategies, earlier this month we shared how NHS North West London announced plans to adapt its mental health strategy.
We also took a look at Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS’s five-year plan and looked at the drivers for change across the health and care landscape in Frimely ICS’s refreshed strategy.
