Sections

Case for Change Appendix: Strategic context (published July 2021)

Health Infrastructure Plan

In September 2019, the Government published its Health infrastructure plan. HM Government (opens in new window). At the centre of this is a new hospital building programme, to ensure the NHS hospital estate enables the provision of world-class healthcare services. We were delighted that Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (opens in new window) and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (opens in new window) were granted seed funding to develop plans for investment between 2025 and 2030. This became the New Hospitals Programme of Lancashire and South Cumbria integrated care system (opens in new window).

The New Hospitals Programme is one workstream of the integrated care system. It sits within the wider strategic vision for the Health and Care Partnership, with the central aim of delivering world class hospital infrastructure from which services are provided.

Policy context

We have developed our Case for Change in the context of national, regional and local policy, which has shaped the transformation agenda in recent years. These policies are summarised here.

National policy

Timeline:

• 2014 – NHS Five Year Forward View
• 2016 – GP Forward View
• 2017 – Commitment to 7 working days
• 2018 – Next steps on the Five Year Forward View
• 2019 – NHS Long Term Plan
• 2021 – NHS White Paper

The NHS Long Term Plan (2019). NHS (opens in new window) makes a firm commitment to reducing health inequalities, improving quality and outcomes through new service models, the employment of digital care and a focus on prevention, supported through an integrated care system structure.

The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health (2016). NHS (opens in new window) sets out a series of recommendations to achieve parity of esteem.

We are the NHS: People Plan for 2020/21. NHS (opens in new window) sets out a vision for what NHS people can expect for their leaders and each other. It sets of a vision for how we can look after each other, foster a culture of inclusion grow our workforce, train our people and work together differently to deliver patient care.

The Naylor Review (2017). HM Government (opens in new window) sets out the scale of opportunity the NHS estate had to release land in order to generate funds for reinvestment in patient care.

The Carter Review (2016). HM Government (opens in new window) sets out large savings that could be delivered in the NHS through productivity and efficiency improvements.

The Topol Review (2019). NHS Health Education England (opens in new window) supports the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan and is key to the delivery of a sustainable NHS. It outlines recommendations to ensure that the NHS can prepare itself to be the world leader in using digital technologies to benefit patients.

Policy paper: Integration and innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all (2021). HM Government (opens in new window) sets out plans for proposed legislation that will embed the principles of integration and collaboration between organisations and remove some of the historic barriers experienced across the NHS.

Greener NHS (2020) (opens in new window) sets out a plan for the NHS to deliver net zero carbon services by 2040 achieving 80% by 2032. New infrastructure and digital will be crucial to reducing travel by delivering care closer to home, building more efficient space and using it more intensively.

“Green to mean green – this will be a massive improvement in our energy consumption compared to what we literally blow out of the windows, cracks in the wall and disintegrating brickwork at the moment.”