Doctors Charity

Doctors save lives, but their importance goes far beyond that. Doctors also make a difference by helping patients minimize pain, recover from a disease faster or learn to live with a disabling injury. A patient's ability to enjoy life, even if they can't be cured, makes a huge difference to them and to their families. If they can go back to work after an illness, that benefits their employer, too. And, that's only part of what makes doctors important to society.

Charities can play a significant part in meeting these challenges, providing expert healthcare, conducting research, raising awareness, supporting patients, and promoting mental health and well-being. Health is the third largest charity sub-sector by expenditure, with 6,626 health charities spending £4bn in 2011/12. In 2012/13, Cancer Research UK, one of the sector’s largest charities, spent £351m on research activity designed to understand the causes and biology of cancer and to create treatments to tackle it—funding clinical trials that involved more than 35,000 patients and the work of more than 4,000 doctors and scientists.1 Charities also play a hugely important coordinating role. Acting as a broker between beneficiaries, clinical professionals, local authorities, national policymakers and the general public, they bridge the gap between different parts of the system, and ensure that patients interact with it effectively and efficiently. The sector’s ability to consider the ‘whole person’ is central to fulfilling this role effectively. While the statutory system provides clinical and specialised care, charities are able to think more holistically, taking into account physical, emotional and environmental challenges and tackling the root causes of health inequality. This approach lends itself to—and could not exist without—a detailed understanding of need based on knowledge, skills, and patient insight.