Total health is a brand experience in which every element of the patient journey is designed to help patients get well or better. It's a concept based upon the total brand experience of global elite businesses, such as Apple. 

Put to one side any tricky questions you may have about Apple – its tax policies, production methods, its offshoring of capital, its supply chains or most recently its position on Trump. And think for a moment about the Apple customer experience. 

Everything, whether online or in person, is designed to convey Appleness – creative, exciting, interesting, innovative, ground-breaking, leading. Walk into the store and the people you meet convey Apple – the Kool-aid kids. Online, the web experience is clean, well-designed, customer focused and creative. And the result is they are able to charge far more than other providers of computer/phone stuff. They are one of the most successful brands in the world – one of the first companies to have a market capitalisation of $1trn. 

Now think about the NHS in the same way. Clearly, you'd have to spend a lot more money than we do now but what else could be done to create a total health experience. 

Let's start with the staff – the core of the NHS experience. Each would have to exemplify good health – look well, appear fit, not seem stressed, be in control, convey healthiness in every way. And what would make that possible? More money for staff, a commitment to reduce working hours so that doctors and health professionals would be able to make sound judgements all hours of the day. Good food onsite 24/7 so there would be no need to snack. Time off to recover. Sane shift patterns. And if you work for the NHS, you would have preferred access to healthcare, bypassing lengthy waits. 

A healthy staff, people who have themselves benefited from the service, will be better able to advocate the NHS to all users. 

Next, think about every point of interaction with the users – face to face experiences, phone calls, website visits, all staff (not just medics and related). Each point of contact would be designed to convey health, to help people take more control over their lives and to adopt practices likely to enhance both the length and quality of their lives. 

In the same way as Apple (and other successful companies) upsell – get you to buy more stuff (‘I came in for a cable and left with a computer'), so each exchange would be an opportunity to sell better personal healthcare. Staff could act as personal advocates for approaches to self healthcare management (‘this is what worked for me'). The more people advocate the brand – the NHS, a total health and wellbeing experience – the more successful it will both be and be perceived to be. 

The NHS could work with public health to increase healthcare outreach, to go out into the community and ‘sell' programmes that can help turnaround failing approaches. Using personal advocacy, staff could talk about their own experiences in addressing a wide range of potential threats to life – smoking cessation, managing stress, weaning yourself off UPFs, managing alcohol consumption – and offer support directly. 

There is a great deal of influence to be leveraged where the advocate has themselves overcome a particular hurdle – ‘I was a 40-a-day smoker until I decided to run the London Marathon'. Medical professionals are among the most trusted people in UK society – that buys a lot of leverage in our communities 

Finally, as a total brand, the NHS would recognise that any threat to its value must be dealt with immediately. Errors, for example, would be admitted and dealt with immediately. Whistleblowers would be encouraged and their activities lauded. Mistakes would be immediately unpacked and lessons widely shared. All business would be conducted to protect the power of the brand to influence and change health-related behaviour. 

No matter how far away this idea may seem at present, it could be done. Apple was two months from bankruptcy until a charismatic leader with a powerful philosophy, turned into the world's most respected brands. It all starts with wanting it enough.

If you would like to respond to this article or have a radical solution of your own, contact: l.peart@hgluk.com