Selected items from the NHS England long term plan Part 3

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NHS moves towards person centred care, personal choices and recognises the role of patient support groups

1.36. Advances in precision medicine also mean treatment itself will become increasingly tailored to individuals, and patients will be offered more personalised therapeutic options. For example, this summer new research showed that, based on their tumour genetics, thousands of women with breast cancer could now avoid chemotherapy. And this autumn the NHS became the first national health system in Europe to give the go ahead to a breakthrough cancer treatment based on modifying a patient’s own CAR-T cells. Chapters Three and Six set out how the NHS is going to be capitalising on further opportunities like these.

1.37. But the NHS also needs a more fundamental shift in how we work alongside patients and individuals to deliver more person-centred care, recognising – as National Voices has championed – the importance of ‘what matters to someone’ is not just ‘what’s the matter with someone’. Since individuals’ values and preferences differ, ensuring choice and sharing control can meaningfully improve care outcomes. Creating genuine partnerships requires professionalst o work differently, as well as a systematic approach to engaging patients in decisions about their health and wellbeing. We will support and help train staff to have the conversations which help patients make the decisions that are right for them.

1.38. For many health conditions, people are already taking control themselves supplemented with expert advice and peer support in the community and online. As part of wider move to what The King’s Fund has called ‘shared responsibility for health’, over the next five years the NHS will ramp up support for people to manage their own health17. This will start with diabetes prevention and management, asthma and respiratory conditions, maternity and parenting support, and online therapies for common mental health problems.

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No mention of thyroid. Of course!