NHS officials promise to make services 'fit for 21st century' in visit to Folkestone
The Chief of Strategy visited a hospital in the sea side town - alongside the Health Minister
An NHS official has told us they are working 'very hard' to ensure their services are 'fit for the 21st century'.
Yesterday, the Chief of Strategy , Chris Hopson visited Folkestone alongside the Health Minister, Baroness Gillian Merron.
It was part series of public events -across the country - looking at how to fix the health service before the launch of the NHS' 10 year plan next year.
Over 100 people attended the event and Chris Hopson told us the public are 'crucial' in their decision making process. He said: "It's the people's NHS, it's funded from tax payers money, they use it, they care very deeply about it.
"The NHS makes people proud to be British so it is only right that we ask the people that use and pay for the service
"There are three ways that we can fix our health service. First of all we need to take advantage of digital technology, switching from analogue to digital. We then need to bring care closer to home, only ensuring people who have to be in hospital are in hospital and then also ensuring the NHS isn't about treating illness, it's about preventing illness.
As of September 2024, over 85,000 GP appointment took place more than four weeks after booking in the South East of England and in Kent and Medway, over 16,000 GP appointments took place more than four weeks after booking.
On waiting lists, Chris said: "When we started reducing lists, we were going to tackle the longest waiters, which we have done. We are now looking at people who have been waiting for 65 weeks and we are close to doing that so we are making progress on the plan that we set out to do.
Opening the event, Health Minister, Baroness Gillian Merron said: “The National Health Service needs to be thriving and meeting the demands for many years ahead. That is why we're doing what is actually the biggest consultation in the whole of the National Health Service's life.
“We want to hear from patients, that's all of us, we also want to hear from staff, we want to hear from charities, we want to hear from families, we want to hear from all of the experts who are involved.