It was profoundly humbling to meet last year’s finalists
WHEN I think about what makes our National Health Service so special, I think about what it means for everyone in our country to have the peace of mind that healthcare is there for us all, whoever we are, whenever we need it.
I think about the values our NHS stands for. The cherished idea that no-one need ever face injury or illness alone — and that no-one will ever be denied medical treatment because they cannot afford to pay for it.
But above all, I think about the people — the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals — whose extraordinary service makes our NHS what it is.
Whether it is life-saving medical treatment or life-changing care and compassion, we all have our own Health Heroes, the people who were there for us and our loved ones when we needed them most.
So I am delighted that the Mail is once again launching its search for our country’s Health Heroes.
There is simply no better way to mark the 70th anniversary of the NHS than to pay a national and heartfelt tribute to every one of these extraordinary people.
I had the privilege of meeting last year’s finalists in Downing Street. It was a profoundly humbling moment.
I met Anita Ruckledge, a dementia nurse at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
She is so committed to ensuring that her patients have the dignity of being dressed in clean clothes that if they do not have family to help, she will take home their washing and do it herself.
I met Professor Mike Dixon, a world-leading surgeon and inspiring fundraiser; Dr Gabriel Hendow, a family doctor in East Yorkshire pioneering top-to-toe check-ups for all teenagers in a special clinic; and Shehan Hettiaratchy, a trauma specialist and plastic surgeon who not only rebuilds patients’ limbs but, through his care for the whole person, helps rebuild their lives.
And I met the 2017 Health Hero, Professor Peter Hindmarsh. He is a paediatrician whose pioneering hydrocortisone pump is now being used across the world.
But it was his humanity as much as his clinical expertise that won him the award.
This is a man who writes letters to every child after each appointment with personal messages of encouragement; a man who gives parents his home number so they can call on Christmas Day even when he isn’t on call.
As the parent of one patient put it, this Health Hero does not just deliver the gold standard of medical care but ‘the gold standard of human care’.
It is this human care of the whole person — in the right setting and at the right time — which I have made my vision for the future of our NHS. I want our Health Heroes — and thousands more like them across the country — to know they will have the right support to carry on improving the care they provide for years to come.
And I want this pioneering care — the very best of our NHS today — to be the foundation of the NHS for tomorrow.
To achieve this, and to meet the growing pressures on our NHS in the years ahead, requires sustained increases in funding. So I have said that by 2023/24 the NHS England budget will increase by more than £20billion in real terms compared with today.
But it also requires a transformation in the NHS itself. So based on this sustained funding, I’ve asked the NHS to draw up a tenyear plan for its future.
And I have set the priorities for this plan, including putting the patient back at the heart of how care is organised.
Through this long-term plan I want to see an NHS where every pound is spent wisely not lost on waste or unnecessary bureaucracy. And I want our NHS to be a place where our Health Heroes are celebrated and empowered to go the extra mile in delivering the very best care to every patient in every part of our country.
So as we mark the 70th birthday of our NHS this week and as we make these commitments to secure the NHS of the future, let us also take this moment as a nation to thank those whose care and compassion will define our NHS for generations to come.
I look forward to inviting this year’s Health Heroes to Downing Street. And I urge you to nominate yours.