The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has submitted a response to the government’s call for evidence on the Major Conditions Strategy.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has submitted a response to the government’s call for evidence on the Major Conditions Strategy.
In January 2023 the government announced it would publish a Major Conditions Strategy, which aimed to ‘tackle the major conditions which contribute to the burden of disease’. The major conditions covered are cancers, cardiovascular diseases (including stroke and diabetes), chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill health and musculoskeletal disorders.
The government launched its call for evidence on the Major Conditions Strategy in May 2023. The call for evidence aimed to ensure ‘the major conditions strategy is underpinned by the evidence and informed by a broad set of views on the priority areas for action’.
The main points of our response to the government’s Major Conditions Strategy consultation were:
- Many factors driving these conditions, and health inequalities more widely, sit beyond the NHS and Department of Health and Social Care’s remit. To prevent ill health in the first place, government must tackle issues such as poor housing, employment (including how much money someone has), racism and discrimination, access to green space, transport and air quality.
- The RCP and 240 member organisations of the Inequalities in Health Alliance are calling for a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities. The strategy should consider the role of every department in tackling disparities with measurable targets and metrics.
- Early diagnosis is central to getting people the care that they need and preventing their conditions worsening. Action should be taken to better support the diagnosis of more people at an earlier stage, but it is important that this is not the only focus of the Major Conditions Strategy and government policy.
- Multimorbidity is increasingly the norm for many conditions – including those covered by this strategy. While we recognise that the conditions covered by this strategy have been chosen because they account for around 60% of total disability adjusted life years (DALYs) in England, many patients may have a number of these six ‘major’ conditions alongside others that are not covered by the strategy, such as frailty or obesity, which will have an impact on their access and treatment.
- Person-centred care is key so that a patient’s conditions can be managed as a whole and not as individual illnesses that do not interact. With the arguable exception of primary care, most current services and support functions are not established to treat multiple conditions as a whole. Services should be built around people with multiple conditions.
- Workforce is a significant barrier to being able to diagnose more people earlier. Having enough staff is central to being able to move through waiting lists quicker and diagnose people earlier. That is why it is vital that the government publishes its long-term workforce plan underpinned by the necessary funding.
We also signed a letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, asking him to “commit to ensuring that all people receive the care and support they need to live well, regardless of whether the conditions they live with are considered to be ‘major’”.