I have spent more than half of the last twelve months in an NHS hospital. The kind of hospital that makes me want to thank God for the NHS. Clean, friendly, strong research base, well trained staff. Good outcomes. What made the hospital special though was the culture of kindness that I experienced and witnessed most of the time. In fact, the occasional lapse only served to make the dominant culture clearer.
Intelligent Kindness is an important book and should be read by all who are involved in healthcare. This means clinicians, administrators, politicians, taxpayers and other citizens, ....everybody. However technical and evidence based it needs to be, at its heart is the centrality of relationships and the NHS is fundamentally an act of love. Although this may embarrass some, love is the central activity and this is a religious/political stance to the world. Of course, it is not party political nor denominational but it is act of charity and duty to care for the sick.Intelligent Kindness shows is how love is translated into action.
The book is of its time. It addresses the damage being done to the NHS by the current coalition regime and the authors do not hide behind a pseudo social science mask of objectivity. It is polemical in places but it needs to be. I cannot imagine any of the Hebrew Prophets adopting a "on the one hand this and the other hand that" BBC even handedness. Neither do the authors but they do respect their readers and write in a thoroughly accessible manner.
I strongly commend this book.
Dr Bernard Ratigan
Consultant Adult Psychotherapist
UKCP Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist
BCP award for outstanding professional leadership 2010
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