The NHS belongs to the individuals.

It exists to enhance our health and wellbeing, supporting us to keep mentally and physically well, to get better when we are ill and, when we can not totally recuperate, to stay in addition to we can to the end of our lives. It works at the limitations of science - bringing the highest levels of human knowledge and ability to save lives and enhance health. It touches our lives sometimes of fundamental human need, when care and empathy are what matter most.

The NHS is founded on a common set of concepts and values that bind together the communities and individuals it serves - patients and public - and the personnel 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 devoted to attain, together with obligations, which the general public, patients and staff owe to one another to guarantee that the NHS runs relatively and effectively. The Secretary of State for Health, all NHS bodies, private and voluntary sector suppliers providing NHS services, and local authorities in the exercise of their public health functions are needed by law to appraise this Constitution in their decisions and actions. References in this document to the NHS and NHS services include local authority public health services, however references to NHS bodies do not include local authorities. Where there are distinctions of information these are discussed in the Handbook to the Constitution.

The Constitution will be restored every ten years, with the involvement of the public, clients and staff. It is accompanied by the Handbook to the NHS Constitution, to be restored a minimum of every 3 years, setting out current guidance on the rights, pledges, tasks and obligations developed by the Constitution. These requirements for renewal are lawfully binding. They ensure that the principles and worths which underpin the NHS are subject to routine evaluation and re-commitment