The NHS comes from individuals.

It exists to improve our health and health and wellbeing, supporting us to keep psychologically and physically well, to get better when we are ill and, when we can not totally recover, to stay as well as we can to the end of our lives. It operates at the limits of science - bringing the greatest levels of human understanding and skill to conserve lives and improve health. It touches our lives at times of fundamental human need, when care and compassion are what matter most.

The NHS is established on a typical set of principles and values that bind together the communities and people it serves - clients and public - and the staff who work for it.

This Constitution develops the principles and values of the NHS in England. It sets out rights to which patients, public and staff are entitled, and pledges which the NHS is committed to achieve, together with responsibilities, which the general public, patients and staff owe to one another to make sure that the NHS runs relatively and effectively. The Secretary of State for Health, all NHS bodies, private and voluntary sector providers providing NHS services, and regional authorities in the exercise of their public health functions are required by law to take account of this Constitution in their choices and actions. References in this document to the NHS and NHS services consist of regional authority public health services, but references to NHS bodies do not include local authorities. Where there are differences of detail these are discussed in the Handbook to the Constitution.

The Constitution will be restored every ten years, with the involvement of the general public, patients and staff. It is accompanied by the Handbook to the NHS Constitution, to be renewed a minimum of every 3 years, setting out present assistance on the rights, promises, tasks and obligations developed by the Constitution. These requirements for renewal are lawfully binding. They ensure that the principles and values which underpin the NHS undergo regular review and re-commitment