The National Medical Director of the NHS said Dorset healthcare is a 'glimpse of the future' and has praised its professionals.

Sir Bruce Keogh, who works in London, visited Dorset on Friday, including a visit to the Weymouth Community Hospital.

As reported Dorset is at the forefront of providing better care for local people after being named as a pilot area for a new joined-up way of working across health, social care and the voluntary sector.

And Sir Bruce's visit was all about experiencing and seeing first-hand how successful work is Dorset is already in co-locating professionals in hubs and therefore allowing them to work more closely together to support the patient in the best way.

The Weymouth hub recently featured as a video case study by NHS England and was shown at the national NHS Confederation Conference.

Speaking to the Echo, Sir Bruce said: "When the NHS was set up in 1948 the average life expectancy of a man was 64 years. Now it's approximately 85. So the problem now is that we have a lot of people in their 70s and 80s, and when you look at them, some of them are spritely but some need a lot of medical attention and a lot are somewhere in the middle.

"We have found ourselves in a position in England where we have services that are separate, some services are provided by other authorities, such as supportive care.

"There is a fracture between the NHS and other local authorities.

"If we were to redesign the service now we would say we needed a health and care service, not health in one place and care in another.

"What we are seeing in Weymouth and Dorset is a glimpse of the future of the NHS. If we can emulate what we have seen here in what is called the hub, with this amount of enthusiasm, all over the NHS, we would be in a very good position.

"Here they are providing a service that sees fewer people going to hospital in the elderly age group but that also sees people getting out of hospital quicker.

"The last place you ever want to be, especially when you are elderly, is in hospital.

"We've seen some really enthusiastic discussions between the clinicians in Bournemouth and Poole who have clearly worked out the ways the two organisations can work together more closely in such a way that can provide a much better service for the local population.

"So many organisations compete with each other to the detriment of the patient, but what I have seen here is the opposite.

"In Weymouth we are seeing care supportive services, therapists, senior doctors, all working together in the community as a single team.

"In other parts of England we find that because of the fracture it makes it more difficult for people working in the NHS to get their patients the service they need and deserve - they are getting pushed from pillar to post.

"Here that is all eliminated at a stroke."