why we desperately need lifestyle medicine if we are to save the NHS

Since January I have been spreading myself between working back in the NHS and running my own health and wellbeing company. I have felt the tug of both sides, and this had led me to feeling a bit discombobulated of late if I am being honest.

I left the NHS back in 2023 after spending my entire adult life in the ‘system’. This was due to a combination of factors that resulted in me experiencing burnout. At the time I wasn’t really sure when or how I had got so overwhelmed, but I made the decision to prioritise my health (physical, mental, and spiritual) over a job that I was passionate about and had spent years specialising in. I had built my identity around being a cardiac nurse and even introduced myself as “Kelly the Heart Nurse” to patients.

I knew that the key to getting well again was through lifestyle, I walked, meditated, connected, focused on my nutrition, prioritised my sleep, practiced yoga and strength training, I had therapy. I trained in breathwork, coaching, and resilience. I could feel and see the difference in my mood, appearance, and outlook on life. I knew I had found the magic key to my wellbeing and I wanted to share it with anyone who would listen.

So what happened and why have I felt so out of sorts recently?

After spending 18-months out of the NHS system, going ‘back in’ with a fresh pair of eyes was quite a shock. The environment for staff is tough; too many patients, not enough resources, not enough time, inadequate staff facilities, poor communication between those on the ground floor and those up the top, little access to daylight and natural spaces, palpable atmospheres of stress, limited access to healthy food, job uncertainty, political uncertainty, and too many really poorly patients with complex physical and emotional needs. This culture is normalised and I don’t think anyone has the time to consider how toxic it is, it is literally a case of head down and get on with it.

In all my years of nursing I have never seen the NHS in such a sorry state. It is now common practice for patients to be nursed in corridors with no privacy or even access to a locker or call bell. The Royal College of Nursing surveyed thousands of nurses about their experiences of providing corridor care. in January 2025, the RCN published a 460 page document called ‘On the frontline of the UK’s corridor care crisis’. The document makes for harrowing reading, and includes testimonials from nurses across the UK who describe their experiences of providing care in corridors, all too often to frail, dementia, and cancer patients.

Over 66% of nurses questioned had provided patient care outside of a designated bed space to patients on a daily basis, 90% felt patient care had been compromised on a daily basis. 62% of care was provided in a corridor, 16% in a chair or additional bed in a bay, 15% in another location not designed for patient care, and nearly 6% were cared for in a waiting rooms.

Just this weekend I witnessed my dad being cared for in a waiting room. At 84-years-young, my dad sat in a plastic chair in the waiting room of an emergency department for 6-hours, he saw 6 different staff in that time and after each encounter he was sent back to the waiting room, he was cold and ended up wearing my cardigan (which he got quite attached to) . As I waited with him, I observed patients with chest pain, post surgical infections, possible appendicitis, and possible fractures, sat on plastic chairs, cannulas in their arms, and not a trained member of staff in sight. I was like a cat on a hot tin roof, poised ready for action. After 6-hours I raised my concerns and was told there were no beds, my dad was then whisked off to be admitted. I reluctantly left him, returning the next morning to find him in an area called ‘Fit to Sit’, he was in a reclining chair in a room with 5 others, no windows or natural light. He hadn’t slept a wink. He remained in the same chair until he was discharged home at 6 pm. He had spent 25 hours in the emergency department in a chair. Now don’t get me wrong, the staff were lovely, kind, and compassionate, however they were clearly stressed, exhausted, and disillusioned. It was heart breaking to witness how hard everyone was working, knowing that at the end of their shifts it would never be enough, they would go home to bed, and be back again tomorrow to do it all again. It is no wonder why are facing the biggest retention and recruitment gap of nurses in the history of the NHS. There are around 100,000 advertised vacancies and an NHS-wide nursing vacancy rate of around 11%. This is just in nursing and does not include doctors and other allied health professionals.

As I was driving my dad home through the beautiful, sunny, spring countryside, I was reminded of how nature is our most powerful medicine. The Victorians used to place tuberculosis patients in beds on balconies overlooking the sea. How can we think putting someone in a room with no windows, unable to sleep, with a packet of biscuits, an egg sandwich, and a cup of tea in a cardboard cup is a therapeutic environment conducive to making people better?

My experiences over the past few months have reinforced my passion for lifestyle medicine in preventing, treating, and in some cases reversing disease. We absolutely need medicine and the NHS, but the system is breaking, we need radical change in how we view and treat non-communicable diseases if we want to have a healthcare system that is fit for purpose.

I am very pleased to say my dad is home with his cat, he caught up on his sleep, but now has a pressure sore from sitting so long. As always he remains cheerful and grateful for the care he received, however he doesn’t want to go back to hospital again if he can help it.