How the NHS’s 10 Year Plan aligns with Ashtons

A future where care begins at home. Not the hospital.

The NHS’s ten-year plan calls for a fundamental shift: more care delivered in the community and less reliance on hospitals. That means proactive services, accessible in neighbourhoods, with wraparound support for patients with long-term conditions.

This is exactly what Ashtons Virtual Hub enables. Through remote clinical pharmacy support, virtual consultations and safety-led interventions, the Hub empowers PCNs and GP practices to keep patients stable, safe and well. Whether it involves managing complex polypharmacy in care homes or delivering structured medication reviews for high-risk patients, the Hub helps reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and supports timely discharge.

It brings specialist pharmacy care into the heart of the community without the need for physical appointments.

Digital-first is not a buzzword. It is already working.

The NHS wants every patient to interact with healthcare digitally by 2030. But digital transformation does not begin with apps. It starts with infrastructure.

Ashtons Virtual Hub is already delivering digital-first clinical services. These are integrated directly into practice systems and daily workflows. Virtual clinics. Paperless reviews. Actionable reports. Seamless coordination between pharmacists, prescribers and practice teams.

By aligning with the vision for “Neighbourhood Health Services”, the Virtual Hub becomes more than a helpful addition. It is a vital foundation for a truly digital NHS. With real-time audit data, trend analysis and outcome tracking, it enables clinicians to measure impact and make smarter decisions.

From treatment to prevention. Pharmacy is leading the way.

Another core pillar of the NHS plan is prevention. The aim is to stop illness before it starts. That means shifting from reactive services to proactive, risk-based care.

Ashtons Virtual Hub supports this transformation by identifying unsafe prescribing patterns, optimising long-term treatments and ensuring regular medication reviews. From supporting appropriate statin use in cardiovascular disease prevention to tackling unnecessary antibiotic prescribing, the service helps reduce harm across entire patient populations.

It is medicines optimisation with real clinical impact, not just a reporting requirement.

Expanding the workforce without expanding the cost

With national shortages and increasing demand, the NHS needs extra capacity without extra expense.

Ashtons Virtual Hub adds skilled clinical pharmacy support to frontline teams. It does not rely on costly locums, agency staff or hard-to-fill roles. Services are delivered virtually, at scale, and with the flexibility needed to support modern general practice and PCNs.

The Hub also supports better workforce planning and continuity. It delivers care efficiently while maintaining high standards of safety and governance.

The bottom line. The future NHS is already here.

The Fit for the Future plan is not abstract. It is an action plan. And Ashtons Virtual Hub is already delivering the kind of integrated, digital and community-focused support that the plan describes.

It is scalable. Efficient. Preventive. Data-driven.

This is what the next decade of healthcare is meant to look like. And it is already available, supporting practices, systems and patients across the country.

As ICSs and PCNs move from strategy to implementation, Ashtons Virtual Hub offers a practical, ready-to-use service that turns NHS priorities into patient outcomes.

Check out the Virtual hubs services here:
https://ashtons.com/services/virtual-hub-lite/

Citation:
Department of Health and Social Care. (2025, 3 July). Fit for the Future: 10‑Year Health Plan for England – executive summary. GOV.UK. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future