Reform Summit Held to Overcome Challenges

Health and Care sector leaders and experts were brought together on Monday 20 September by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, to help shape healthcare reform.

The summit invited open discussion to help shape and drive reform, covering NHS elective recovery, wider social care system reform, preventing ill-health and closing health disparities, and achieving greater integration.

Attendees included NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard as well as NHS senior leadership and local leaders, social care, public health leadership, medical colleges, membership organisations, think tanks, charities and local government.

Following the summit, Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said:

We can’t carry on with business as usual, that’s why today I’ve brought together vital leaders and experts from across the health and social care world to hear their views on how we deliver necessary reforms to meet and overcome the challenges we face, and I thank all those who joined.

The pandemic changed everything and left us with large backlogs. It’s a huge challenge, but the last eighteen months has shown what we are capable of achieving when we work together towards a common goal.

I’m confident we can tackle waiting lists and deliver the ambitious reforms needed to help our health and social care system recover and move forwards for the better from this wretched pandemic.

On 7 September the Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to tackle the backlogs that have built up during the pandemic, reform adult social care, and bring the health and social care system closer together on a long term, sustainable footing, with a £36 billion investment in the health and care system over the next three years.

The government has also recently brought forward the new Health and Care Bill to help drive forward integration in health and social care.