“Reform or die” ¹

This striking quote from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer comes from a press conference in September 2024, where he spoke about the urgent need of transforming British healthcare.

Starmer highlighted three transitions that the National Health System needs to make: First, the system needs to become more digital. Second, more care must be moved from hospitals into the community and patients’ homes, as the current model is still too heavily hospital-focused. Third, there is an urgent need to place far greater emphasis on preventative work.

These priorities are deeply interconnected and they mirror global trends towards a future with sustainable and patient-centred care. Populations are ageing and becoming sicker, putting enormous pressure on already strained systems. To reduce patient suffering and avoid escalating costs we need to shift the balance from treatment to prevention. It’s not just important - it’s essential.

The best way to fight wounds is to prevent them in the first place. As for healthcare in general, there is an imbalance of resources put on treatment versus prevention that needs to shift.

The path to sustainable care lies in the intersection of digitalisation and prevention, and these interconnected forces need to work together to revolutionise wound care. Predicting risks, assessing skin for early detection, and continuous monitoring of patients are all examples where digital technologies and AI enable wound care to make huge leaps forward. And in combination with scaling up preventative efforts we can truly transform wound care. 

By its very nature, preventative care is a quiet triumph. There are no alarms, no emergencies – just the silent success of something never happening.  But truly remarkable work and progress is already being done by clinicians, innovators, educators and leaders alike. These individuals and their stories, dedication and foresight, are powerful reminders of what is possible. If we want to enter a new era of wound care, this is where the spark begins.

That’s why we’ve created The Silent Hero Awards – to shine a light on the unsung heroes who work tirelessly every day to prevent pressure injuries.



¹ Keir Starmer, PM speech on the NHS: 12 September 2024 (GOV.UK, 12 September 2024) https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-the-nhs-12-september-2024 accessed 22 May 2025.