The success of modern medicine is popularly seen in terms of hospitals and life-saving surgery. That focus obscures the potential of a different response to much of the ill health in contemporary society. It’s patient-centred integrated health care. In a refreshing acknowledgement, the Treasurer, Scott Morrison, has strongly supported the value this model offers to the health system and the economy. The patient-centred approach sounds straightforward, even prosaic, hardly the heroic life-saving surgery we associate with hospitals, yet the need for integrated care grows each year, along with the burgeoning levels of expenditure directed to our hospitals.