Simon Lovegrove, CEO of MHealth, who has considerable experience as the lead on, or as a contributor to, the development of over 150 hospitals globally, and has managed major hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and China, explains why – based on his own experience – he believes integrated hospitals achieve greater efficiency, and create more opportunity to draw the healthcare facility into the community, while simultaneously providing better continuity of care.
I am proudly British, a passionate advocate for the NHS, and work in developing and implementing new health and care models, both here and overseas. My company, MHealth's skills include hospital and healthcare planning, and working to provide Healthy Living Communities — as per United Nations Sustainable Goal 11. During my career I have worked with the NHS overseas to support British export effort — a valuable resource that clearly highlighted UK expertise. This expertise is, in my view, still evident in many areas of the NHS, but not in hospital planning, design, and construction. Now we have the experience of learning from other countries — and this has been truly inspirational. Some of these countries have overtaken the UK in the world comparisons of health outcomes.
This is a critical time for the NHS, with considerable recent activity surrounding the service, and some influential reports published, some of which I will refer to. While the Prime Minister stated, within the first weeks of becoming Prime Minister, that he would not increase the NHS Budget unless a new strategy is proposed and approved, the Budget increase was necessitated to resolve the staff payment disputes. However, it does not lessen, indeed it reinforces, the need for a new strategy. The pre-budget NHS expenditure showed that hospitals accounted for 78% of the overall spending. The greater emphasis on prevention is hard to afford by the DHSC Budget alone. This article offers some thoughts on the way NHS care is currently provided, and my own vision of the benefits that greater use of integrated hospitals, with increased focus on people, as well as patients, can bring, looking ahead.
On 7 April 1948, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Constitution came into force, with its definition of health stated as: 'Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. On 5 July 1948, the UK National Health Service (NHS), seen as a forerunner of universal healthcare, was founded, with a stated aim of 'providing everyone in the UK with healthcare based on their needs, and not on their ability to pay' — i.e. healthcare that is free at the point of use.
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