Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve (1) the outcomes and (2) the experiences, of patients living with long-term conditions.

The Government’s ambition is to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting.

Most services for long-term conditions are commissioned locally by integrated care boards, which are best placed to plan the provision of local services subject to local prioritisation and funding. Once diagnosed, and with a management strategy in place, people with long term conditions can usually be cared for through routine access to local primary, secondary, and community care services.

For the longer term, the Government is developing a 10-Year Health Plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future. The plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed, to move healthcare from hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from treatment to prevention. This will include care and support for people with long term conditions.

We also continue to invest in health research for the management of long term conditions through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Medical Research Council, and UK Research and Innovation.