Humanising healthcare

The NHS is at a pivotal point as it struggles to adapt to changing patterns in demand coupled with tight financial restraint. The initial purpose of the NHS to treat acute illness, trauma and infection in short episodes of care is no longer relevant. Advances in modern medicine, obesity-related health problems, mental health problems and an ageing population have created a different landscape of care. It is also now more common to have two or more conditions than to have a single one. A health system that continues to address these problems as single entities is not going to be effective.