Health Minister Lord Darzi recently outlined his plans for the future of the NHS. South East Coast Strategic Health Authority chief executive Candy Morris explains what this means for health care in Brighton and Hove and the rest of Sussex.

Staff and patients in Brighton and across Sussex are finding all sorts of ways to celebrate this week's 60th anniversary of the NHS.

These events commemorate some of the greatest achievements of the organisation, from the commitment and compassion of staff, to the many medical advances.

But this is an anniversary where celebration has a purpose - to ensure the NHS of the future delivers healthcare of the highest quality and safety, and treats patients as individuals with compassion and dignity.

The publication of Lord Darzi's national Next Stage Review and the draft NHS Constitution this week is the result of listening to staff and patients across the country.

It is about transforming the experience of every patient, with proposals to improve care, empower staff and raise standards.

The review sets the national context for our own regional vision, Healthier People, Excellent Care, featuring eight pledges from us at NHS South East Coast.

These include a commitment to eradicate avoidable hospital-acquired infections by 2011, when there will be no avoidable cases of hospital acquired MRSA and less than 2,000 cases of C. difficile.

We are also committed to reducing the rising numbers of obese people.

Together, these reports form the heart of our plans to create the best possible health service for the next ten years.

They combine the vision for excellence of doctors and staff, as well as your views as patients and your own expectations and experiences of our services.

Our ambitious plans to deliver the best quality care for all our patients across Sussex are echoed in Lord Darzi's aspirations for the NHS nationally.

High quality care is one of the issues you tell us matters, whether you are in hospital for days or attending a morning clinic.

Respect, dignity and compassion in care are important. We want to publish measures on these issues so you will be able to use the results to make choices about services.

Healthier people, excellent care, describes how our services will focus on maintaining health and providing the best possible care.

This includes a commitment to tackling high rates of teenage pregnancy in parts of Sussex and the lower life expectancy rates for both men and women in other areas.

Prevention is also key to Lord Darzi's national review, focusing on access to quit smoking programmes and schemes to avoid lifestyle diseases.

In Brighton and Hove more than one in four adults are estimated to smoke, which is higher than the England average.

But more than 2,000 people have given up in the past year with the NHS Stop Smoking Service.

The service has helped people in other parts of the region too.

One in four people in East Sussex smoke and last year this accounted for more than 1,000 deaths in the county.

Pregnant women in Hastings and Rother were among more than 1,300 who successfully stopped smoking with the help of NHS services, along with similar numbers in East Sussex Downs and Weald.

In West Sussex the number of people quitting smoking through the service last year was almost 4,500.

An estimated one in five adults is obese in Brighton and Hove. This rate and the number of obese children in first year at school are lower than the average in England.

A healthy eating programme targeting people in the area and in Hastings is among 62 projects to address health inequalities in the region, launched with support from the Big Lottery Fund.

Helping people to stay healthy means finding new ways to deliver care at a time and place which suits them.

Patients have told us throughout our consultation they want a wider choice of care.

Next Stage Review sets out how patients can visit GP-led health centres closer to home for blood tests and other checks.

They are open between 8am or 8pm, either by appointment or just by walking in.

The ways we can deliver care are already changing.

The use of social enterprises, with services owned and run by employees, will encourage doctor and patient involvement and strengthen partnerships across the NHS and other organisations.

The right to a choice of care, the right to choose your GP practice and the roles and responsibilities of NHS staff in making this happen is set out in the NHS Constitution published this week.

The 60th anniversary of the NHS is an opportunity to put in place something which safeguards its future.

This draft constitution reaffirms our core values and refreshes them for the 21st century so they provide a basis for a modern, forward-looking NHS.

It is for everyone in the NHS to take up the work of improving the wellbeing of communities and the experiences and outcomes of patients.

The celebrations taking place across Sussex reflect this.

There is so much in the NHS we can rightly be proud of.

The task now is to ensure we make the most of everything put in place over 60 years and to focus on the things that matter to both our staff and you as patients, such as high quality care, cleanliness and treating people as individuals with dignity and respect.

With the national review and our regional vision we look forward to ensuring these become the benchmark for us to provide the best possible healthcare.