Over 1700 delegates, speakers and exhibitors joined us at the ACC in Liverpool for the start of this year's NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition.
The conference opened with a welcome message from
Sir Keith S. Pearson, Chair of the NHS Confederation. Followed by Nigel Edwards, Acting Chief Executive, NHS Confederation,
who said it was privilege to address NHS Confederation annual conference delegates at such a pivotal time for the NHS.
Nigel said: "There are some very difficult times ahead, hard decisions are going to be needed and there is going to be a huge amount of change. Transition to the new system looks tough."
He said this year’s conference is a chance to get to grips with the coalition Government’s programme, think about the transition to a new system, discuss further the financial challenge, and the relationship between the NHS and adult social care.
Read the full summary of Nigels speech on the latest news pages of the NHS Confederation website or watch the video of his presentation on our watch again pages.
In the first plenary of this year's conference, delegates were joined by author of the Fair Society, Healthy Lives report - Professor Sir Michael Marmot.
Delegates heard the findings of Fair society, healthy lives claimed that social and economic arrangements are at the root of health inequalities, and that a review of these arrangements must be made across society as a whole, not just focused on ‘the poorest of the poor.’
He called for fairness to be put at the centre of all Government policies and programmes, in order for health to improve and health inequalities to diminish.
Read the full summary of Professor Marmot's speech on the latest news pages of the NHS Confederation website or watch the video of his presentation on our watch again pages.
Delegates also enjoyed a site visit to Aintree University Hospital Trust for a behind-the-scenes tour of the hospital’s new Elective Care Centre.
Delegates were impressed with the quality of the facilities and how the trust will be ensuring electronic patient record keeping on the site. A presentation from Ward Priestman, director of informatics, illustrated how the trust is implementing and developing its electronic patient record and moving towards an integrated system incorporating scanned paper records and access to the GPs systems.
FInd out more about the site visit on the latest news pages of the NHS Confederation pages.
Video presentations now available
Watch videos of some of the key presentations made throughout the first day of conference on the watch again pages.
Download the daily conference newsletter and find out more about whats going on at the conference this year.
Still time to book your place and attend this year's conference
If you have not yet secured your place but would like to attend you can still book at the event itself from today, Wednesday 23 June. Visit one of the Information Points for more information.
Keep in touch during the event
Follow the conference on Twitter and use the #confed2010 hashtag to tweet your views. Delegates are also invited to join our LinkedIn group to meet other delegates attending the event and share your thoughts.