Kindness And Trust Are At The Core Of The NHS And Social Care

There are millions of acts of kindness going on within the NHS and social care services, says the Chair of NICE.

Speaking at the NICE Annual Conference in Liverpool, Professor Haslam said that the reason the NHS is so cherished is that it delivers the services people demand and as a result people’s trust is earned.

“Kindness and trust.  They are hugely important words because – for me – they sum up the relationships that we each have with the people who work in the NHS and in social care. The words imply a relationship between people. They imply care, community, friendship.

“At this moment in the NHS or in social care services, there are millions of acts of kindness.

“Somewhere, a nurse is returning home from a night shift where she comforted a small and bewildered child with cancer.

“Another nurse is holding the hand of a shell-shocked mother who has delivered a very small and sick baby 13 weeks early.

“A paramedic is talking quietly to an elderly man collapsed on his kitchen floor.

“A homecare worker is listening to a pensioner’s fears for her independence.

“A GP is reassuring a pregnant woman desperate to stop smoking.

“A porter shares a joke with a man with a cancerous thyroid as he pushes him to theatre.

“The list goes on. And on: not thousands of acts of kindness, not tens of thousands but millions each day, every day. These are our social care services, our NHS.”