UK begins roll-out of new NHS neighbourhood service
People living in the most deprived communities across the country are set to benefit from new neighbourhood health services as the government takes the first steps in the rollout on Wednesday (9 July).
The services aim to bring NHS care closer to home and provide better support for people with complex conditions, keeping them well and avoiding unnecessary hospital trips.
The government has hit the ground running on delivering the plan, today writing to health chiefs and local authority chief executives, urging them to team up with local health and care providers, voluntary groups, and members of their communities to accelerate the rollout of the services across the country.
They have been asked to submit applications, outlining examples of joined-up working and innovation in their areas, to join phase one of the neighbourhood health programme.
This will prepare local partnerships to take on responsibility for more neighbourhood services in their area. It will see successful applicants join an intensive national coaching programme over the summer, including major workshop days that bring together experts, GPs and their teams, patients, the voluntary sector and local authorities.
From September, the first 42 sites will then immediately start rolling out their neighbourhood health programmes, with clear guidance, support and metrics to report on regularly.
The department and NHS England will work with over 40 places across the country and ensure each region is covered by the programme. The services will be prioritised in working-class areas where healthy life expectancy is lowest, targeting communities with the greatest need first.
After years of neglect, areas where people need the NHS most often have the fewest GPs, the worst-performing services and the longest waits. People in working-class areas and coastal towns spend more of their lives in ill health, and life expectancy among women with the lowest incomes has fallen in recent years, after decades of progress.
Neighbourhood health services will bring together teams of professionals to focus on patients with multiple long-term conditions and people with complex needs.
A joint taskforce has been set up between the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to drive progress, chaired by Sir John Oldham and made up of NHS leaders, local authority bosses, and other key figures from the voluntary sector and health and care organisations.
