A Plan for Public Health and Wellbeing

A Brief Manifesto for 21st Century Healthcare; in response to a Labour Party consultation:

Knowledge and Skills

Discrimination between professional classifications should be dismantled and human resources more tailored to front-line needs. This can be achieved by a modular life-long training programme open to any health care professionals (HCPs) who have passed the pre-requisite modules. Thus, clinical skills will be learnt as required, and clinicians will be employed on the basis of a skills portfolio. Different skills may be seen as more or less valuable by staff or service users, and this will determine the pricing structure of the jobs market and job mobility.

Risk Management

We should end the knee-jerk responses to medical and forensic risks and replace them with a system where the money spent is proportional to the risks being reduced. In public health, we know what increases the risks of cardiovascular, cardiopulmonary, neuromuscular and psychiatric illnesses and their relapse. In mental health and probation services we know what increases and decreases the risks of many common addictions and offences. We can calculate a risk rating for every person in the country based on their individual risk profile and pay service providers accordingly.    

Service Delivery

We need to update the primary care delivery model to tackle the risks where-ever they are found in the community. The GP practice surgery model is no longer fit for purpose. HCP consultations should be mobile and accessible to all; appointment booking and initial triage should be conducted online, where possible, with assistive technology; care-coordinators should commission services based on accurate risk assessments and the known return-on-investment. Virtual wards and other home treatment models should expand with greater empowerment of patients, reductions in the contamination risks of large hospitals, and proven gains in health and wellbeing outcomes.