The purpose of this ‘Handbook of Compassion in Healthcare: A Practical Approach’ is to help make compassionate care a day-to-day clinical reality for everyone: patients, families, and healthcare professionals. We do not suggest that current health systems are entirely lacking in compassion. All around the world, clinical care is provided by staff who seek to be professional, compassionate, and patient-centered at all times. The very existence of health centres, doctors’ surgeries, outpatient clinics, acute hospitals, daycare centres, dental practices, physiotherapy centres, and many other healthcare facilities is a testament to basic human compassion, to society’s commitment to help the afflicted, and to our fundamental desire to support each other in times of difficulty. We care. At the same time, it is clear that healthcare settings vary widely in relation to compassion, with some already excelling in compassionate care, but others in need of a more conscious or sustained focus on compassion. Many services do well, but most could do better. Improvement is always possible. Health systems are operated by people, for people. Compassion matters deeply. Compassion can be the key value that improves services further and makes our fundamental caring impulses more apparent, more effective, and more human. Always and everywhere, compassion matters.
