Communities to benefit from health centres on their doorstep

• 27 neighbourhood health centres to bring care closer to home – backed by up to £50 million
• Ordinary, hard-working communities across England will benefit from more one-stop-shop health services on their doorstep
• Government has pledged to rollout 250 centres as part of its landmark 10 Year Health Plan boosting access to healthcare, cutting waiting lists and tackling inequalities

Tens of thousands of patients in England will benefit from improved healthcare on their doorstep, as the government rolls out the first 27 neighbourhood health centres – bringing more services into the community.

Once completed, patients will immediately be able to access a greater range of health services from these centres – all under one roof and closer to their homes – including include urgent treatment, GP and pharmacy services.

In time, centres will also include wider services like debt advice, employment and family support and other voluntary sector support and will be open 12 hours a day, six days a week. 

The 27 will be open by 2027 and are the first of 50 neighbourhood health centres backed by a total of £200 million in government investment to upgrade existing buildings.

In total the government has pledged to open 250 by 2036, with the first 120 open by 2030.

Neighbourhood health services will benefit patients by providing end-to-end care and tailored support, looking beyond the condition at wider causes of health issues to the specific individual, helping avoid unnecessary trips to hospital, prevent complications and end the frustration of being passed around the system. This will have particular benefits for people with complex conditions, such as those at the end of their lives.

A range of services under one roof will mean more conditions can be treated swiftly locally – allowing people to talk through their health conditions as well as their lifestyle and quality of life and any other relevant contributing factors, enabling a rapid referral to the appropriate care and support where this is needed.

Health Minister, Stephen Kinnock said

This government is transforming healthcare, so the NHS works around the lives of patients – not vice versa.

We’re rolling out neighbourhood health centres across the country by repurposing and improving local buildings, first targeting the communities that need them most. 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.

As we rebuild our NHS, 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.

Claire Fuller, NHS England’s national medical director, said 

Neighbourhood health centres will make it easier for people, particularly working-class communities, to access more joined up care closer to home.

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 hospital.

Case studies of existing schemes

• Truro Health Park offers two GP practices, mental health, podiatry, midwifery, dental and more, delivering an estimated 150,000 additional appointments per year.
• Barbara Castle Way in Blackburn hosts three GP practices, physiotherapy, dental, podiatry and outpatients, delivering around 48,000 extra appointments per year.
• Alexandra Avenue Health and Social Centre in Harrow provides GP, audiology, dental, midwifery, cardiology, podiatry and children’s services, delivering more than 120,000 additional patient appointments per year.
• Seaham Primary Care Centre offers GP, physiotherapy, diagnostics, mental health, midwifery and drug and alcohol support, creating capacity for over 100,000 additional appointments per year.
• Oldbury Health Centre provides GP, dental, mental health, community nursing, blood tests and pharmacy services, with 8 new clinical rooms enabling around 48,000 extra appointments per year.

At the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced plans for 250 new neighbourhood health centres across England, in a bid to cut waiting lists, transform how people access healthcare and bring the NHS closer to where people live.

Neighbourhood health will redesign and join up existing health and care services, which are often fractured and a maze of referrals for patients.

The 27 centres are targeted at areas with higher levels of deprivation in seven regions of England

• East of England
• London
• Midlands
• North East and Yorkshire
• North West
• South East
• South West

Existing NHS estates will be repurposed, rapidly refurbished and transformed to offer more services and more appointments, maximising value for money and the taxpayer while cutting the time it takes to get the centres up and running for patients.

As part of its landmark 10 Year Health Plan, the government will deliver a fundamental shift from hospital to community, reducing pressure on hospitals and helping to cut waiting lists, while improving access to healthcare where people live.

GP leaders will be pivotal in shaping and delivering these new services and will be supported to deliver it with two new contracts from 2026. These will enable them to work over larger areas to deliver neighbourhood health services to the community.

Jacob Lant, Chief Executive of National Voices said

Prioritising areas with the greatest need in this rollout is a vital step towards tackling health inequalities and improving outcomes for communities too often left behind. Neighbourhood health centres have real potential to transform care, but only if they are designed around the people who rely on them the most. That means working in genuine partnership with local communities to understand what support will make the biggest difference.

Nicola Close MBE, Chief Executive of the Association of Directors of Public Health, said

Over time, these new centres will help improve people’s health and wellbeing – not just because they will make accessing treatment easier, but because our health and wellbeing is influenced by so many factors over and above those the NHS provides. By being able to get advice and support on these important wider issues – like debt and employment – closer to home and alongside NHS services, health in its broadest sense, can be improved, and we will get one step closer to realising the ambition of preventing people from getting ill in the first place.

This ambition can only be realised through true partnership between the NHS and local authorities, who are responsible for improving and protecting the health and wellbeing of all their residents.

List of centres