Medicine has made huge strides in diagnosis, medications and procedures. We have neglected compassion, care, rest, healing, the placebo effect, the therapist effect, good diet, exercise, rest, relationships, spiritual health, work, meaning and purpose. Our health systems can be brutalising both for the patients and the staff most of whom would love to be able to offer the kind of care they would wish to receive themselves, in line with their original vocation. There are many excellent practitioners who do this already. We must learn from their good examples, their techniques, their attitudes and their ways of working then spread the good practice throughout our health care system.