Commenting on the publication of the 10 Year Health Plan, Michelle Riddalls OBE, CEO of PAGB, the consumer healthcare association, shares:
We welcome the publication of the long-awaited 10-Year Health Plan, which outlines the Government’s ambitions to reform the NHS over the next decade and transform it into a ‘neighbourhood health service’.
At PAGB, we are particularly pleased to see self-care recognised as a core enabler of the Government’s three key shifts: from treatment to prevention, from hospital to community, and finally, from analogue to digital.
Self-care is mentioned three times in the Plan itself, and its principles are embedded throughout. The Plan rightly acknowledges that good self-care depends on the right knowledge, skills and support, and commits to empowering people to manage their own health more effectively. This directly aligns with the key asks we’ve consistently championed across briefings, stakeholder meetings and parliamentary activity.
One of the most significant commitments is the transformation of the NHS App into the ‘front door’ of the NHS, supporting people to access care in the right setting the first time. Crucially, the App will advise on self-care and signpost to well-evidenced consumer healthcare products — a change PAGB has been calling for over several years.
The Plan also reinforces the importance of digital tools in tackling health inequalities and enabling timely access to information. These commitments reflect our long-standing position that digital innovation must play a central role in supporting people to self-care for self-treatable conditions, relieving pressure across the healthcare system.
The recognition of the economic contribution of the over-the-counter (OTC) sector is another welcome development. The Plan cites the “explosion” in the consumer health market, valued at £4.1 billion in 2024, with sales up 8% on 2023 and strong growth projected. This reinforces our message that the OTC sector is not only delivering value to the NHS through reduced prescriptions and increased efficiencies but is also a growth industry that supports the wider life sciences economy.
The Plan’s commitment to tackling health inequalities is also vital. We know that empowering people to self-care and building confidence in self-care can help to overcome health disparities and improve health literacy.
We are also encouraged by the focus on strengthening the role of community pharmacy in prevention and neighbourhood care. The Plan recognises that pharmacies are central to delivering services closer to home, and we are pleased to see plans to integrate pharmacy into neighbourhood health teams and link them into the Single Patient Record. These are actions we called for in our Self-Care Blueprint and have been advocating for consistently.
Today’s announcement represents a major step forward in embedding self-care into the fabric of the NHS. We look forward to working with the Government and the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure the ambitions around self-care are fully realised in practice.
