Opinion: Universities have a big part to play in the NHS 10 Year Health Plan – here’s why

On World Health Day, Professor Deborah Lycett, Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) and Health and Community Wellbeing Theme Lead at Coventry University Group, explains why universities are essential to implementing the NHS 10 Year Health Plan.

The NHS undoubtedly delivers world-class care, but it is operating under pressures that risk perpetually trapping the system in a cycle of reactive treatment and limited capacity. Demand is rising year on year, with backlogs from COVID-19 straining services and 7.3 million people currently waiting for treatment. Health inequalities remain entrenched throughout the UK, with hospital admissions for infectious diseases almost twice as high in the 20% most deprived areas, while the severe staffing crisis also persists.

Recognising that much must change, the NHS 10 Year Health Plan sets out a shift in how care is delivered by moving services closer to communities, focussing more on prevention and investing in the transition to digital and AI-enabled healthcare. Yet, delivering this depends on having enough health professionals with the right skills to provide care where and when it is needed. Alongside being a key health development partner in research, knowledge exchange and system design, the NHS relies on universities to educate and train the next generations of healthcare professionals to sustain the workforce.

Care that meets communities where they are

The move from hospitals to community care is one of the plan’s most visible ambitions, seen in the rollout of Community Diagnostic Centres and local partnerships, but it’s also among the most complex to implement, requiring not only the relocation or expansion of services but a thorough understanding of local populations and designing care to meet their specific needs.

As community-centred health initiatives are rolled out more widely, the benefits - which are already proving to be huge - will be more so, as patients face shorter journeys to access health and care and gain treatment earlier. Pressure on NHS services would also be eased, with health conditions identified and treated before they become more serious.

Universities’ research can help the NHS and local councils locate gaps in care and get greater insight into what people actually need. Through the Coventry Health Determinants Research Collaboration, we are supporting Coventry City Council to examine the wider factors that influence health outcomes - such as income, education, job security and housing – and using these insights to co-create earlier, preventative interventions. By training local residents and council officers to better understand community needs and evaluate local services, we are helping build local capability to act before health issues escalate, as prevention is a core principle of community-centred care.

Universities also understand the communities they serve and can help tailor health hubs and programmes to local needs, driving regional development in health services. Later this year, we will become the first higher education institution co-located within an NHS Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Coventry, which is expected to deliver thousands more diagnostic tests for local residents each year.

Rethinking how people train for health careers

Although healthcare remains one of the most popular degree choices for university students, the NHS still needs graduates faster than universities can supply. The traditional one-intake-per-year model creates an imbalance as large groups of graduates arrive at the same time, leading to onboarding surges, while services can be short-staffed at other points of the year.

To provide a continuous, year-round supply of trained staff, we have moved many of our postgraduate courses to six intakes per year, allowing students to start and finish at multiple times, with our undergraduate courses adopting the same structure later this year.

Our move to multiple intakes also brings university training and education more closely in line with how the NHS operates. Workforce gaps that cannot be met by the traditional one-intake model are making the NHS increasingly reliant on apprenticeships, which are structured with flexible start and end points. To give aspiring healthcare professionals more options to study and train, while also recognising the growing popularity of apprenticeships across the UK, we are collaborating with regional colleges and the NHS to create more progression routes from Health T Levels into apprenticeships and degrees.

In addition, the NHS makes it clear that research should focus on gaps healthcare professionals see regularly in patient care, which is why more programmes are needed to allow healthcare staff to combine clinical work with research, explore problems they encounter day to day and implement improvements that could directly benefit patients. Our Research Centre for Care Excellence, delivered in partnership with University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, is focused on increasing clinical-academic pathways to cultivate a research-active healthcare workforce that improves quality, safety and outcomes across health services.

Accelerating digital and AI-powered healthcare

The push to accelerate AI-enabled and digital healthcare could alleviate pressures, as new technologies could diagnose conditions earlier as well as support people to manage long-term conditions safely at home with personalised treatment.

Our researchers are developing all kinds of technologies the NHS needs, such as wearable sensors that track blood pressure and respiratory health and an AI system that can analyse complex data to predict preterm birth, giving doctors the opportunity to intervene earlier and improve outcomes for both mother and baby. We’ve also developed a contactless heart sound detection system using radar technology that could help the early detection and ongoing monitoring of cardiovascular health conditions.

Alongside these diagnostic advances, we are working with digital health social enterprise, Hope4TheCommunity CIC, to co-design digital self-management programmes for people living with cancer, diabetes, muscular-skeletal problems and mental health conditions.

A system that supports global healthcare

As universities underpin the move toward prevention, community-centred and digitally enabled care, they also shape how the NHS connects with health systems across the world. The education, research and innovations developed through university partnerships inform global health standards and workforce mobility, support multi-country clinical trials and the wider exchange of knowledge that improves public health internationally, as illustrated through our work in India and Ukraine to support physiotherapy and rehabilitation education.

By keeping universities close as partners and valuing the expertise they bring in turning this plan into reality, the NHS could not only meet the demands of the next decade; it could set the standard for how health systems adapt to global challenges going forward.

Find out more about Health and Community Wellbeing at Coventry University Group.