Long-term wounds in the UK are increasing at the rate of 12% per year. The rise in these numbers is partly due to the older population, who tend to have slower healing processes. The majority of wound care is provided by nurses, not all of whom will have received wound care education. Although patient outcomes demonstrate improvement when healthcare professionals receive postgraduate training, it has also been identified that collaborative care and a coordinated team approach can benefit patient care in preventing a wound becoming long term, as has been demonstrated by the Tower Hamlets project. This article explores these issues and the effects that a ‘never healing’ wound can have on a person.