COMMUNITIES and the individuals who comprise them have a vital role in shaping health and social care in Wales during the next decade, says Assembly health minister Dr Brian Gibbons.

Launching Designed For Life, a 10-year plan to create a world-class health and social care system, Dr Gibbons told an audience in Tredegar the NHS and other bodies involved in care must shift the focus from tackling illness towards preventing disease.

Designed For Life replaces a previous 10-year plan, Improving Health in Wales, launched four years ago by Dr Gibbons' predecessor Jane Hutt. Dr Gibbons said Designed For Life puts patients and the communities they live in at the heart of health and social care planning and provision.

"We know health in Wales is generally not good and there are inequalities. Life expectancy in some Valleys' areas like Tredegar is five years less than in wealthier areas," he said.

"Designed For Life is about tackling these inequalities, tackling the suffering, vulnerability, pain and helplessness.

"This involves a change in emphasis in how we provide care, shifting it from hospitals into communities.

"We also need to encourage a public culture change in Wales so the healthy option becomes the normal option. We need to make people and communities real partners in that process."

Speaking at Roderick Hill Court, a sheltered housing complex that has been modernised with more community-based care in mind, Dr Gibbons said Tredegar was chosen as the place to launch Designed For Life because it was the cradle of the NHS.

He told of visiting the town 30 years ago as a tourist because of his interest in the service and a wish to see where it had all started.

However, whether Designed For Life signals a glorious new dawn for health and social care in Wales, or whether this was just a case of another day, another document, depends not on how and where it was launched.

The key to success will be in taking the aspirations, tasks and targets off its 78 pages and into the surgeries, hospitals and most importantly, the communities it places such a high value upon.