The first 27 neighbourhood health centres have started to be rolled out by the Department of Health and Social Care (DH).
The DH revealed these health centres will be “open by 2027” and are “the first of 50… backed by a total of £200m in government investment to upgrade existing buildings”.
The first centres have been placed in “areas with higher levels of deprivation in seven regions of England”.
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The neighbourhood health centres have been designed so “patients will immediately be able to access a greater range of health services from these centres”. These will include “urgent treatment, GP and pharmacy services”.
The government has pledged “to open 250 by 2036, with the first 120 open by 2030”.
It also intends for the health hubs to include “wider services like debt advice, employment and family support and other voluntary sector support” in the future, while operating “12 hours a day, six days a week”.
“Tailored support”
The hubs will offer “end-to-end care and tailored support” and focus on looking at the “wider causes of health issues” for its patients.
The government believes this will help “avoid unnecessary trips to hospital, prevent complications and end the frustration of being passed around the system”.
In particular, it plans for them to help “people with complex conditions, such as those at the end of their lives”.
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The sites will be “existing NHS estates” which will be “repurposed, rapidly refurbished and transformed to offer more services and more appointments”.
This will maximise “value for money and the taxpayer” and also cut the “time it takes to get the centres up and running for patients”.
Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said “we’re rolling out neighbourhood health centres across the country by repurposing and improving local buildings, first targeting the communities that need them most”.
“One-stop-shops”
“These one-stop-shops will help end the maze of referrals and repeated conversations, treating not just poor health but the causes of it too,” he said.
“Our mission is to shift more healthcare into the community, while delivering easier access to care, improved outcomes for patients and better value for money for the taxpayer.”
NHS England’s national medical director Claire Fuller, said: “Neighbourhood health centres will make it easier for people, particularly working-class communities, to access more joined up care closer to home.
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“By bringing GP services together with a wider range of tailored support, we can help people to get the right care more quickly, close to home, while avoiding unnecessary trips to the hospital.”
In July last year, the DH announced the neighbourhood health hubs as part of the NHS’s 10-year health plan.
It announced that these centres would bring “historically hospital-based services into the community”, whilst being an “easier, more convenient access to a full range of healthcare services right on people’s doorsteps”.
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The DH announced the locations of the first 43 neighbourhood health hubs in September.
It announced that the hubs will initially focus on treating long-term conditions “diabetes, arthritis, angina, high blood pressure, MS or epilepsy”.
Full list of locations:
- Liverpool Road Health Centre
- Stony Stratford Health Centre
- Shefford Health Centre
- Jubilee Gardens Primary Care Centre
- Hornsey Neighbourhood Health Centre
- Alexandra Avenue Health and Social Care Centre
- The Centre Manor Park
- Erith Health Centre
- Downham Health & Leisure Centre
- Summerfield Primary Care Centre
- Stockland Green Primary Care Centre
- Oldbury Health Centre
- Hinckley Health Centre
- Long Eaton Health Centre
- The Stone Castle Centre
- Beeston Hill Community Health Centre
- Westbourne Green
- Seaham Primary Care Centre
- Alfred Barrow Health Centre
- Fingerpost Health Centre
- Fleetwood Health and Wellbeing Centre
- Barbara Castle Way
- Radcliffe Primary Care Centre
- Goldsworth Park Health Centre
- Truro Health Park
- Montpelier Health Centre
- Charlotte Keel Health Centre
