Commentary: facing up to the challenge of chronic conditions

As healthcare practitioners, we should all quite rightly remain focused on the effective delivery of care. This includes concentrating on the small proprtion of people who consume a relatively high proprotion of healthcare, but this should be productive. Care of people with chronic conditions such as asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure, diabetes, kidney disease and stroke costs the NHS about £7 of ever £10 spent on patient care.