Being from an Italian family and a lover of cars since I was a kid, I hope you’ll forgive me a short analogy.
After years of working in our beloved national health service, I realised that it was failing my patients. I adore the NHS, but I desired more focus on a preventative approach to healthcare. However, the system was not set up to work that way (it still isn’t).
I felt that the service was performing like a FIAT for my patients, but I wanted to be a Ferrari for them. That’s where the idea for Thyme was born. More on “why the name Thyme?” later.
There is a Healthspan crisis
As we live longer, we assume that we have more time to enjoy life. In reality, we’re spending a greater proportion of our life in ill health. The average lifespan since 1960 has increased by 19 years, but the percentage of our lives spent in good health has remained the same.
“For every extra year of life we have added to our life span, half of that may be in moderate or poor health. This ratio has been roughly constant for decades.”
McKinsey Health Institute (2022) “The secret to great health? Escaping the healthcare matrix.”
Great health is about what we pursue
I realised that most health services are reactionary and as a result we’re always chasing illness. There are providers of preventative screening around the world, but in the UK you pay a lot for a raft of tests. Next, you’ll get given a lovely, glossy report only to be told to see the very doctors that are too overworked to help.
Investing in your Healthspan for the long term
Increasingly, it’s become apparent to me that as a population that we don’t invest in our health or our longevity enough. We just presume “it’ll be ok”. I doubt we’d take the same attitude with our investments, houses, pensions or holidays.
I wanted to move the healthcare narrative away from a reactive ‘sickness service’ to whole health care. I sought to create a healthcare service designed to enhance the portion of a person’s life spent in good health – their “Healthspan”.
A Whole Health approach
The idea is simple. We need a health advocate and advisor to help us engage with sustainable changes to help us achieve our ‘best life’, long-term. The human body is a perfect machine, and all its functions are interlinked. To get the most out of it we need to eat well (fuel it), use it in the right way (exercise it) and look after it (service it). That’s the last car analogy, I promise!
It’s never too late to make positive changes to your lifestyle. Even later in life well informed changes can improve and extend your Healthspan.
As the human body and its functions are connected, we need an approach to healthcare that is also connected. An approach that incorporates preventative, lifestyle and traditional health services into one, managed package.
The experts in preventative health
Thyme is about our members building up relationships in person with health professionals. We want them to feel they’re in safe hands and cared for.
Joining the dots with an individualised programme of care means they’re connected to leading doctors, nutritionists, sleep experts, personal coaches and world class scanning. This truly is bespoke care and health planning over the most important years of life to maximise ‘healthspan’.
Absolutely excellent service. Picked up on a few things I didn’t even know were wrong, and I’ve been able to make significant changes to my health over a short period of time. Looking forward to continuing my Healthspan journey with Thyme.
Fred B, Thyme client
For the corporates we work with, it’s about giving them a truly world class service for their whole team. Thyme helps them to lift their performance, enhancing their reputation for caring, and to attract and retain the brightest talent.
People ask me how and why I came up with the name Thyme. It’s a herb with strong medical links and has an antimicrobial element. Time is also what we want to extend for all our members, the portion of their life spent in good health.
If you’d like to learn more about Thyme get in touch with the team on 0330 179 2000 or send us a message.
