NHS 75th anniversary – publication of five-year plan for local health and care services

A five-year plan which sets out the vision for health and care services in Suffolk and north east Essex is being published on today’s NHS 75th anniversary

The Joint Forward Plan 2023 – 2028 (JFP) has been written and built on the views of local people and communities, and it sets out a series of commitments that aim to deliver improved physical and mental wellbeing for the areas’ one million population.

Published by the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB), in conjunction with our NHS partners, local government and voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, the JFP lays out how the ICB will contribute to the ambitions of the local integrated care system (ICS), with its collective health and care partners and joint ambitions, to improve the quality of services and give people the very best chance of living long, happy and healthy lives.

The JFP has been written as a series of easy-to-understand commitments that form a person’s lifespan from pre-birth to death – Start Well, Feel Well, Be Well, Stay Well, Age Well and Die Well – and over the coming years the performance of those commitments will be assessed to ensure that ambitions are being achieved.

The priorities of the JFP are built on the feedback of the hundreds of contributions made by local people via online surveys, a pop-up video booth and face-to-face meetings during September – December 2022, to the ICS strategy and from further feedback received during January – February 2023 on the draft JFP.

That feedback is acknowledged and has been incorporated into this five-year plan.

Commenting on today’s publication of the Joint Forward Plan 2023 – 2028, Richard Watson, the ICB’s deputy chief executive, said: “We are delighted to publish our Joint Forward Plan which is built upon the views of the community and our partners.

“Our vision is to deliver the best possible outcomes for every one of the million people in Suffolk and north east Essex. 

“We are committed to delivering improvements in health and care with a focus on eradicating health inequalities, namely the significant gap in life expectancy, that exists across our geographical area.

“Please do take some time to read this plan and support us in its delivery.”

Read the Joint Forward Plan 2023 – 2028 on the “About Us” page on the website.