Cutting waiting lists and supporting our NHS
Our health communications and campaign programme will help ensure people get the care they need more quickly.
‘Help Us Help You’ campaigns will encourage people to access the NHS in the right way at the right time – managing demand on the NHS and helping to cut waiting lists, while addressing backlogs and encouraging earlier diagnosis. Our communications will encourage efficient and effective use of primary care, pharmacy and NHS 111 services, including increasing confidence and use of digital routes to access care such as the NHS App. At the same time, we will continue to ensure people access the care they need by promoting action on the signs and symptoms of cancer and heart attacks.
Our donation campaigns will also continue to generate critical supplies of blood, plasma, and organs to support the NHS and patients.
The NHS’s greatest strength is its people and the ‘We are the NHS’ campaign will tell the real-life stories of people working in the NHS, to show how fulfilling, rewarding and varied a career in health care is. The national Made with Care campaign will also help to address the growing demand for adult social care by harnessing the voices of care ambassadors to motivate new candidates with the right values to apply.
Childhood vaccination programmes have ensured diseases, such as polio and diphtheria, have practically been eradicated in the UK. We will launch an innovative geo-targeted pilot to parents and carers to address falling uptake rates. By promoting the crucial benefits of childhood vaccination and the risks of not taking up the offer, we will ensure parents and carers feel empowered and motivated to give their children the full course of their routine vaccinations. We’ll also build on recent flu and COVID-19 vaccination campaigns to maintain high levels of take-up among eligible groups, highlighting the benefits of vaccines and their importance in protecting our own health and the health of those around us.
‘Better Health’ is a well-established programme, delivering evidence-based interventions that change health behaviours at scale. In the year ahead, we’ll launch a new campaign to address excess deaths from cardiovascular disease by prompting lapsed patients with high blood pressure to re-engage with their treatment. We’ll also continue to help people across the UK live longer, healthier lives by taking small steps which can protect their own physical and mental health and give their children the best start in life.
Measured by:
- Increase in use of primary care digital access routes, NHS 111 online and pharmacies for relevant health concerns.
- Increase in knowledge of the signs of cancer and heart attacks.
- Increase in intention to participate in cancer screening when invited.
- Increase in applications to nursing and allied health profession degree courses, and to adult social care.
- Increase in intention to take up vaccines among eligible audiences.
- Increase in donation of blood, plasma and recording a decision of consent on organ donation.