Three leading organisations representing UK and world healthcare are joining forces to stage the conference of a lifetime.

They are the NHS Confederation, which represents UK health authorities and trusts; the Institute of Health Service Management (IHSM), representing individual healthcare managers; and the International Hospital Federation, representing healthcare institutions world-wide.

The conference will take place in Europe's biggest conference and exhibition centre, Earls Court in the heart of London, from 1-3 July 1998.

Hosting presentations by some of the principal leaders and thinkers in healthcare from around the world, the conference will also feature interactive multi-media events, awards, satellite events and a historic and futuristic exhibition covering the last five decades of the UK's favourite institution.

A key feature of the event is a large trade exhibition, illustrating the essential partnership between quality healthcare and suppliers of goods and services, and providing unique opportunities for networking with colleagues from the UK and all over the world.

The conference will be both a nostalgic trip into the past and a bold look into the future.

The conference will be a celebration of the last 50 years, featuring a journey back through the decades to look at the many milestones and achievements of the NHS. The conference sessions, however, will quickly turn the focus on the future.

The NHS, like all other healthcare systems, is gearing up to the new millennium and urgently having to face the need to modernise. The Prime Minister has set the NHS the challenge of being ready to meet the demands of new technology, changing populations and a growing awareness by the public and staff about what they should be expecting from and contributing to an effective public health service.

The conference will also see the culmination of a six-month project drawing on the latest public participation and analysis techniques to set scenarios for the future and an agenda for action and modernisation. This agenda will then be tested by every delegate at the conference, discussed in depth and adapted accordingly.

For further information contact: The Conference Team. Tel: 0121 414 1536