For more than seventy years, the NHS has provided healthcare free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom. The service of today is almost unrecognisably different from the service as it existed then – and it seems likely that the pace of change will accelerate in the year to come.
Technological Advancements in Healthcare
The delivery of healthcare around the world is being radically altered by the encroachment of new technologies into the sector. And it is to be hoped that at least a portion of this progress will benefit patients of the NHS.
The use of big datasets and artificial intelligence to diagnose diseases earlier and take preventative action shows extreme promise. Early intervention is critical for minimising mortality when it comes to common diseases like cancer and heart disease.
We might also consider the impact that telemedicine might have. One of the positive side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is that teleconferencing software is now commonplace and widely understood. This provides an opportunity for the medical sector, which can now treat low-priority patients in a smaller timeframe, which (in theory) means that everyone should be seen sooner, and that waiting times should fall. If you have just a minor ailment, you can be seen via telephone, without having to go to the trouble of actually visiting a practice.
Strain on Resources and Workforce Challenges
One of the biggest looming challenges in the short term involves the supply of workers and the swelling demand for them. The population in the UK is ageing, which means that numbers of older people – who disproportionately make use of the health service – are rising rapidly.
At the same time, the pressure on the salaries of NHS workers has risen substantially. Over the course of the last year, various groups of NHS professionals have taken strike action.
All of this might result in inferior quality of service, which will inevitably have a negative effect on patient outcomes. Claims of medical negligence against the NHS, which already represent a two-billion-strong annual bill, are likely to rise.
Emphasis on Preventive and Mental Health Care
The future of healthcare is preventative. When we put resources into preventing an illness from developing, we save ourselves the immense cost of having to cure those diseases later on.
It’s this logic that’s seen the establishment of the NHS’s ‘Live Well’ guidance. The organisation is focussed not just on helping us to get better after we become ill, but on how to avoid becoming ill in the first place.
The national conversation has also shifted to encompass mental health, as well as physical health. Our lifestyles and diets are, generally speaking, unsupportive of good mental health – and the NHS might play some role in helping.
Integration of Health and Social Care Service
Another consequence of an ageing population is more pressure on the social care system. It might be that in the year to come, we see strides toward a more integrated health and social care system. This is something advocated for in a 2022 white paper,and it might well be a major feature of an upcoming election.
