The NHS has actually been marking its 70th anniversary, and the national dispute this has actually unleashed has actually centred on three huge truths. There's been pride in our Health Service's enduring success, and in the shared social dedication it represents. There's been concern - about funding, staffing, increasing inequalities and pressures from a growing and ageing population. But there's likewise been optimism - about the possibilities for continuing medical advance and better outcomes of care.

In looking ahead to the Health Service's 80th birthday, this NHS Long Term Plan takes all three of these realities as its starting point. So to prosper, we must keep all that's great about our health service and its location in our nationwide life. But we must take on head-on the pressures our personnel face, while making our additional financing go as far as possible. And as we do so, we need to accelerate the redesign of patient care to future-proof the NHS for the decade ahead. This Plan sets out how we will do that. We are now able to because:

- initially, we now have a safe and secure and enhanced funding course for the NHS, balancing 3.4% a year over the next five years, compared with 2% over the previous five years