ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the strengths of the innovation and improvement work in England. It describes the quality journey the National Health Service (NHS) has undertaken, reflects on some of the themes, particularly that people have been better at discovery than spread and adoption. The NHS is iconic of Britain and has cross-political party support. The NHS is unique in several ways including being the world's largest publicly funded health service. No other country has a health system that provides universal free coverage, is semi-integrated, and achieves prompt care for citizens both in emergencies and on a planned basis. The NHS introduced an "internal market" so that the healthcare-providing parts of the NHS would trade with those that commission it. The chapter focuses on how the UK NHS undertakes innovation, impressive work is, of course, being undertaken in every healthcare system across the world.
