Reflecting on two decades in healthcare

When I joined the journal in 2007, the magazine had already taken its ‘first steps’ and had grown into an ‘inquisitive five-year-old’, eager to assert its identity. I had the pleasure of watching the journal grow and mature into a well-respected 20-year-old – still eager to learn, evolve and to make an impact. The journal has matured, and I have celebrated my own half a century, but – as the NHS continues to demonstrate after 74 years of service – there is always something new to discover, to learn, and to innovate.

Looking through the archives at the first editions, it is clear there are certain aspects of healthcare that haven’t changed much at all (and arguably some that still need to), while other aspects – such as technology – have changed immeasurably. The seismic shift in digitisation is just one example of how the landscape can change when there is the will and investment to support innovation. There have been cultural, political, and ideological shifts too and I will aim to cover some of these in this whistle-stop tour, back in time…

Operating theatres So, what was high on the agenda in the early 2000s? Patient safety and hospital-acquired infections were top priorities, as they are today. The very first edition of CSJ, published in November 2002, raised the issue of how perioperative patient warming can reduce the risk of surgical site infection and reduce complications. Patient warming to prevent inadvertent hypothermia later became part of NICE guidance, in April 2008,¹ and it is now widely understood to be best practice