Recommendation 13

DHSC and NHSE told us that they were fully supportive of the new government’s aims to shift healthcare spending from treatment towards prevention, from hospitals to the community, and from analogue to digital. However, DHSC contended that these shifts would be hard to do and should take place only over the long term and not at the expense of today’s patients.21 The DHSC also emphasised that a shift towards prevention might be achieved through longer-term legislative and culture change such as the Tobacco and Vaping Bill. DHSC and NHSE acknowledged that the 10-year plan for the NHS was a timely opportunity to set out how the three big shifts would happen, including in terms of changing the balance of spending and investment over time. However, DHSC told us it still intended to prioritise resources on current pressures such as acute services in hospitals. It suggested that if money were needed for something urgent in A&E then that would inevitably be where it would be spent.22 Increasing productivity