The government has issued an open invitation to health services and local authorities to pioneer the first Neighbourhood Health Services. Central to the 10 Year Health Plan launched last week, Neighbourhood Health Services will bring NHS care closer to home, with multidisciplinary teams based in communities to provide care that has traditionally required a trip to hospital.
Applications are expected to outline examples of joined-up working and innovation in their areas. One example is Team Up Derbyshire, an initiative which links up GPs, social workers, home carers and nurses to support people who need care in their own homes.
Successful applicants will 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.
The first phase of the Neighbourhood Health Service programme will see 42 sites start to provide services from September, targeting areas of greatest need first, with clear guidance, support and metrics to report on regularly.
Prioritising areas of greatest need
The government says its priority will be working-class areas where healthy life expectancy is lowest, targeting communities with the greatest need first.
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.
The Neighbourhood Health Service 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.
