10 year NHS Plan – the challenge for Guildford?

Fundamental Change Proposed

The Guildford Society believes a healthy population is a primary indicator of an attractive place to live. Although it is dependent on good health care provision, best health status comes when there are high standards in the built environment, green space  and economic vibrancy. 

The Society has become increasingly concerned that the Guildford's health infrastructure is failing to meet the needs of a growing population.  The Government has now published its 10 year plan for the NHS (Executive Summary - Fit for the Future). 

More patient care will be moved into local communities.  ‘New health centres will house neighbourhood teams. They will not only bring historically hospital-based services into the community - diagnostics, post-operative care, and rehab - but will also offer services like debt advice, employment support and stop smoking or weight management, all of which will help tackle issues which we know affect people’s health’.

Being treated closer to their homes or at home is the preference of most patients.  Surveys show better health outcomes and lower costs for the NHS.

True ‘integrated care’ will be delivered where there is seamless, joined-up care pathway focused on each patient’s individual needs. The Plan also envisages a digital future. Patient monitoring will change fundamentally.  Multi-disciplinary teams providing a range of primary care services will operate out of GP practices. Innovative new services like so called ‘Virtual Wards’ will operate more extensively.

This will free up hospitals to do what they do best, treating patients with acute care needs and reducing waiting times.  The Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH), like all NHS hospitals, is in a continuous struggle to keep waiting times down and would benefit enormously if patients, particularly outpatients, could be treated by GPs and other health professionals.

But this can only happen if there is somewhere locally for them to go.

Guildford’s capability is seriously hampered by the absence of modern, purpose-built facilities designed to deliver neighbourhood health services.

This is particularly apparent in areas such as north Guildford with the highest levels of deprivation and poorer health among the town’s population.

Guildford hasn’t seen any new facilities built for primary and community health care for approximately 40 years.

Health services which are constrained by cramped, poorly equipped buildings can only offer a limited range of services, particularly for those patients with a range of complex needs. 

The NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board’s own statutory risk register recognises the parlous state of GP premises in Guildford and across Surrey. They own up to ‘premises which cannot deliver fit-for-purpose primary care’.  Also, ‘if current primary care estates capacity is not increased, then this could prevent any work stream aimed at bringing services from hospital to community.’ 

While current demand is not being met, things will only get worse as Guildford’s population grows.  The government are demanding Guildford build four and five thousand new homes over the next five years which could add 10-15,000 new residents needing access to health care services, many based in new locations in the borough. 

Elsewhere in the country, innovative primary and community facilities are being built providing their local populations with a comprehensive range of care. Examples of a number of recently completed Health Centres can be Found Here.

You might ask why this hasn’t been happening in Guildford, one of the richest towns in the country?

In 2019, the then Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), now succeeded by the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (ICB), published plans for the development of two new primary and community care facilities.  One was at a site in Park Barn which has subsequently been sold.  The other was for the redevelopment of the NHS owned Jarvis Centre. See Picture Below

The Guildford Society, St Catherine’s Village and Onslow Residents Associations, Guildford Borough Council and others participated as members of the Stakeholder Reference Group. You can read some of the story in December 2021 article in the Guildford Dragon.  

All communication from the CCG  stopped abruptly in early 2023. Absolutely nothing has happened since to progress new facilities.

According to the ICB this is through a lack of funds.  The ICB decided that it had other priorities which have constrained the development of neighbourhood health, for 25 years the preferred NHS policy.

Throughout this period, it has poured tens of millions of pounds into the redevelopment of the RSCH. The RSCH has during the same period built one of strongest balance sheets of any NHS hospital in the country, meaning that it had its own money to finance development projects.

The Guildford Society has lobbied the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (ICB) intensively for the past two years without any success.  Our latest proposals 'Delivering integrated care in Guildford' were submitted in April which can be found at This Link .

We can see no ICB strategy for neighbourhood health and no plans to fund it adequately in the future. The question is when will the Board publish its intentions to provide a comprehensive community care service for the town and beyond to deliver the NHS 10 Year Plan?

Further Information

At This Link you can find

1. Links to the NHS 10 Year Plan Fit for the Future.
2. A presentation 'Delivering integrated care in Guildford' developed by The Society that examines how the NHS service should be configured in Guildford to meet the challenges of the future.   This includes recommendations.
3. Factors impacting local NHS Plans
4. NHS Terminology