From Ambition to Action: Reflections on the NHS 10-Year Plan
- Shaun Williams / Michelle Francis
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
The NHS’s new 10-Year Plan offers a timely and necessary reimagining of how healthcare is delivered in the UK. It sets out a clear direction: a shift from hospitals to communities, from paper to digital, and from reactive care to prevention. We welcome this with cautious optimism and quiet encouragement, not as part of the NHS, but as independent contributors already working in ways that align with many of the Plan’s core principles.
For both of us, the Plan resonates personally and professionally.
Prevention as a First Principle
Perhaps the boldest ambition in the Plan is its commitment to prevention. With chronic illness now responsible for over 70% of NHS spending, the pivot from managing sickness to maintaining health is both logical and overdue.
But we know that prevention only works if it is inclusive. The gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least affluent communities in England now exceeds 18 years. Prevention must reach those who haven’t historically been reached, people who may not recognise early signs, who face barriers to accessing care, or who lack the time, support, or confidence to act on health concerns.
At Lime Health, we’ve made prevention the starting point of every journey, offering structured, digital-first pathways to reduce cardiovascular risk, identify hypertension and diabetes earlier, and support behaviour change. It’s not flashy, and it’s not new. But it works. And when embedded into everyday life, including the workplace, it can relieve pressure on acute services and improve health outcomes at scale.
Care That Meets People Where They Are
One of the Plan’s most compelling shifts is the move away from hospitals as the front door to care. The vision of neighbourhood health centres open evenings and weekends, combining diagnostics, mental health support, and rehabilitation, feels not just welcome but necessary.
As clinicians, we know that too often, people delay seeking help until they reach crisis point. It’s not because they don’t care, it’s because the system feels distant, confusing, or out of reach.
Our own work at Lime has shown how digital navigation, remote monitoring, and access to real-time clinical support can bring healthcare into the flow of daily life, at home, at work, or in underserved communities. These services don’t replace the NHS, but they show how care can begin earlier, feel more personal, and avoid unnecessary escalation.
The Role of Digital: Useful, Usable, Trusted
The Plan’s ambition to turn the NHS App into a true “digital front door” is a step in the right direction. For too long, fragmented systems and analogue processes have frustrated both patients and clinicians. A single, intuitive digital interface could reduce delays, improve coordination, and give people more agency over their care.
We’ve seen similar gains in our own work. Whether it’s a triage tool, risk assessment, or remote clinical input, digital services, when designed around real needs, can simplify access and build trust. They can also offer real-time data and insight to help spot trends earlier, something we believe is crucial if prevention is to be proactive rather than passive.
But it’s essential that digital tools are developed with equity in mind. Not everyone has the same access, literacy, or confidence when it comes to technology. The Plan’s proposed “digital inclusion prescriptions” are a smart step, and we’d welcome even more investment in ensuring digital doesn’t deepen existing divides.
Delivery Will Be the Test
The Plan is ambitious, in scale, scope, and vision. It seeks to reshape care settings, patient experience, funding models, workforce structure, and governance, all in one decade. That’s no small task.
We recognise the challenges: workforce pressures, system complexity, entrenched inequalities, and the long tail of post-pandemic strain. But the direction is right. And the intent, to build a fairer, more responsive, and more preventative health system, is one we wholeheartedly support.
As an independent provider, we’re not here to implement the Plan, but we are here to contribute to its goals. We offer real-world examples of how prevention, access and digital care can work together to deliver better outcomes. We believe there is huge value in continued collaboration, not just between public and private sectors, but between national systems and local action.
Because building a health system fit for the future won’t be the job of one organisation. It will take many, working differently, towards the same ambition: better health, for everyone.
By Shaun Williams, CEO, and Michelle Francis, Head of Clinical, Lime Health
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