It’s time to put compassion back into compassionate care

There is a stark mismatch between the current wonders of medical science and the relentless erosion of humanity of care in our healthcare services. It is time to put compassion back into healthcare. What is compassion? It’s not only putting yourself in the shoes of others, but also doing something about it. It is an active concept by contrast to empathy which is just putting yourself in the shoes of others. Compassion can be taught, measured, and audited. There is compelling evidence that this is needed. The family support organisation Congenital Hyperinsulinism International (CHI) has worked with over 600 participants examining the “journeys” that families experience when their child is found to have this devastating illness which causes severe hypoglycaemia.1 If it is not recognised and treated promptly, it causes life-long brain damage. The research by CHI found that families remembered individual doctors and nurses who showed them compassion, but it was not embedded in the organisational cultures of the hospitals in which their children received care. For example, compassion was not always present …