The NHS has been marking its 70th anniversary, and the national dispute this has unleashed has centred on 3 big truths. There's been pride in our Health Service's long-lasting success, and in the shared social commitment it represents. There's been issue - about financing, 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 much better results 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 beginning point. So to be successful, we need to keep all that's excellent about our health service and its location in our national life. But we must take on head-on the pressures our personnel face, while making our additional funding go as far as possible. And as we do so, we must speed up 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 secure and enhanced funding path for the NHS, averaging 3.4% a year over the next 5 years, compared to 2% over the previous five years