It’s Not ‘The NHS’, It’s ‘OUR NHS’: Better Healthcare Through Reconnection To Society

It is not ‘The NHS’, it is ‘Our NHS’. The relationship between the NHS and the society it serves is one of deep interdependence. When people talk about the NHS as a separate thing they are ignoring its and our health is dependent on each other. The phrase “our NHS” carries a profound significance, it’s not just about healthcare, it’s about our communities, our wellbeing, and our future. 

Yet, a separate ‘box’ on the government’s funding spreadsheet. This dangerous fiction is undermining the very essence of what makes the NHS national, healthy, and a true service to the people.

The NHS As Separate From Our Society

When we hear people talking about the NHS we are spreading a misconception that the NHS is a standalone entity. A separate thing from everything else in our society. This is a dangerous fiction. 

”We don’t want an NHS with a country attached” (BBC) This was the explanation that Wes Streeting the UK Minister for Health gave for limiting the support and resources the NHS has. That the NHS and society are and should be considered separately.

The reality is that the NHS is attached to the country, and the country is attached to the NHS in every possible way. The view from government and senior NHS managers is that the NHS is somehow some separate thing from the rest of the country. It is a separate box on the funding spreadsheet and that’s all that matters.

Closing Doors Instead of Opening Paths to Wellbeing

The approach of viewing the NHS as separate has led to the NHS to distance and separate itself from society. It creates plans that are ignorant of the rest of society. Focused on narrow decision making. That separates out what the NHS is doing and what is happening in society. 

It’s created a system where people wait endlessly for assessments, diagnoses, results, and even just a place on a waiting list. With 7.62 million people waiting, there are more people than ever waiting for treatment (BMA). At every stage, the spreadsheet managers close doors, ignores people’s pain and suffering and recategorise as a waiting number towards a target. Whilst the system tightens its grip on what it defines as ‘healthcare.’ 

This approach has ignored the central core role of the NHS to improve the health and wellbeing of the population. (NHS Constitution) Seeing that as an additional cost or demand.  But health isn’t just about immediate treatment, it’s about prevention, wellbeing, and quality of life.

When society’s needs are boxed away on a spreadsheet, the broader determinants of health, like people’s emotional and social wellbeing, housing, employment, and education, are ignored. This leaves the NHS struggling to treat the symptoms of societal issues rather than addressing the causes. It’s no wonder that chronic conditions and mental health issues are on the rise when the causes are left unchecked, as somebody else’s cost.

Our NHS Isn’t Just a Service, It’s Part of Our Society

The NHS is part of our society. The patients it looks after are part of our society. Their sickness and poor health are often directly caused by the environment they live in and the lifestyles of our communities.

The NHS isn’t a factory. It’s not there to churn out healthcare ‘products’ in a neat, efficient process. It’s a service that thrives on relationships, on the human connections that underpin every interaction between patient and clinician. The staff who work within the NHS are part of our society. They’re our neighbours, our friends, and our family members. They live within the same communities as the people they treat. The staff of the NHS are no less sick than the rest of society that they live in.

If we want an NHS that truly serves the nation, we need to see the NHS as part of the wellbeing of our in our society. We need to recognise that health outcomes are the result of much more than clinical treatment. They are the cumulative effect of the environments people live in, the opportunities they have, and the support they receive.

The Dangerous Fiction of Separation

The idea that the NHS can be separated from society is a dangerous fiction. It only exists on the spreadsheets of bureaucrats and in the minds of policymakers who fail to see the bigger picture. If the NHS is broken, it’s because society is broken. And if society is dysfunctional, the NHS will inevitably cease to function effectively.

An NHS that tries to stand alone, isolated from the social context of its patients, will fail to meet its purpose. 

• It will not be national. 
• It will not be healthy. 
• And it will not be a service. 

To heal the NHS, we need to heal our society. To have a thriving NHS, we need thriving communities. All the things that can and should make the NHS good are the things that connect and intertwine with our society. 

You want more staff. We need to nurture our society to produce more and keep them living healthy lives.

So let’s stop pretending we can separate out ‘OurNHS’ from society and fix it. 

Our NHS is Broken.

When the Prime Minister describes the NHS as being broken, it also means by association our society and its health and wellbeing are also dysfunctional. 

Any new plan to fix our NHS also needs to take into account why the previous plans failed and what we can do differently to fix our NHS. Separating out the NHS as being separate from society is failing to acknowledge and address the problems that caused previous plans to fail (As I discuss in this blog)

Reconnecting Our NHS With Society

So, how do we move forward? We need to stop pretending that we can ‘fix’ our NHS with standalone plans and isolated interventions. Instead, we must encourage our NHS to reconnect with society. This means working with frontline leaders to integrate healthcare with community services, local businesses and charity and social enterprises. Working together to address the social determinants of health, and creating policies that recognise the interdependence of health and society.

For me, the question isn’t just “how do we fix the NHS?” It’s “how do we better connect our NHS to society so that both can thrive?” When we recognise that the NHS belongs to all of us, that it’s our NHS, we start to see solutions that go beyond spreadsheets and budget controls. We start to see real, lasting change that benefits everyone.

A healthy society needs a healthy NHS, and a healthy NHS needs a healthy society.

For me the question is much less how do we fix the NHS, but how do we better connect the NHS to society, so that both can thrive.

It is not The NHS, it is OUR NHS.

Conclusion: It’s Not “The NHS”—It’s “Our NHS”

Let’s stop viewing the NHS as a separate entity that can be ‘fixed’ in isolation. Let’s acknowledge its deep roots in society and work towards creating a healthier, more supportive environment for everyone. A healthy society needs a healthy NHS, and a healthy NHS needs a healthy society. Only by working together can we ensure that our NHS is truly a national, healthy, and effective service for generations to come.