Final Report > Chapter 21: Introduction > Guiding principles underlying our approach and recommendations > Patients must be at the centre of the NHS

Patients must be at the centre of the NHS

12 The NHS exists as a service to patients. Those whom it exists to serve are all of us, since we are all patients at some point in our lives. The legitimate needs of patients must be at the centre of the NHS and thus they are at the centre of our recommendations. There may have been times when it has appeared that the NHS was organised more in the interests of those who work in it than of those for whom it exists. It was the General Medical Council (GMC), in its contribution to Phase Two, which described the NHS as `too heavily provider-oriented and too unresponsive to the people it serves.' [8] This approach must be consigned to history. It is not the way forward. But a patient-centred service does not mean, and should not be taken to mean, a patient-dominated service, in which doctors, nurses, managers and other healthcare workers are regarded merely as functionaries. This would be to devalue, indeed ignore, the professionalism of those who work in the NHS. This professionalism must be respected and given its proper place.

Footnotes

[8] Seminar 3. General Medical Council. Position Paper