The health secretary attended the launch of Neighbourhood Health Hub in Stratford on Friday, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

The new Neighbourhood Health Hub in Stratford and (inset) Wes Streeting at the launch event (credit LDRS)

Health Secretary Wes Streeting launched a new local “health hub” in Stratford today (Friday 17th).

Neighbourhood Health Hub, at the University of East London’s Stratford campus, will offer health and care services to people in Newham.

Speaking at the launch, Streeting said the hub would act as a “model for the neighbourhood health service this government will build”.

The Neighbourhood Health Hub will provide services such as health checks, screening for blood pressure, counselling sessions and physiotherapy.

Services would be administered by students in training alongside experienced health professionals.

Streeting told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the hub would mean “taking more care into the community to where people are, where they live”.

He said it would also “ease pressure on general practice [GPs]”.

Streeting added the hub is about “attacking the health equalities that blight communities in Newham”.

According to the Department of Health and Social Care people in Newham live on average six years fewer in good health compared to residents in Kensington and Chelsea.

It also says Newham has one of the highest tuberculosis rates in London, with 41.1 cases per 100,000 population in 2022, more than five times the England average of 7.8 per 100,000.

Streeting said his department was “pumping more money into the areas with the greatest level of need” while “generating savings from efficiencies”.

Professor Amanda Broderick, vice-chancellor and president at the University of East London, said the hub would be a “passport to good health” for people in Newham.

She added: “The Neighbourhood Health Hub also gives our community access to free, high-quality services while offering students and practitioners transformative learning experiences.”

But some GPs have warned against moving some services from GPs to local health hubs.

Speaking in a personal capacity, East London GP Jackie Appleby, also vice president of doctors for Unite the Union, told the LDRS that things a family doctor might pick up could otherwise be missed by the hub.

She said: “If you are looking after a population of 50,000 people you lose that intimidate knowledge of the patient and their family.

“Allied health professionals do not interpret things. Allied health professionals are not used to managing risk in the same way GPs are.”

Dr Appleby added: “GPs are expert generalists. We’re really good at sifting through things, when people come to us we don’t know what they’re coming for, giving us information.

“They say GPs don’t need to see kids with coughs and colds. Well we do actually, because we might pick up that the mother has postanatal depression, or there’s domestic abuse at home.

“I think Wes is going to be throwing the baby out with the bath water if he gets rid of that.”

Dr Appleby also said GPs were “already really understaffed” while “demand is going up” and questioned whether the health hubs would save money or time for GPs if it meant they would refer people back to doctors.

But Streeting insisted today the Neighbourhood Health Hub in Stratford would be “additional to general practice”.

He said: “If someone is worried, they can get a blood pressure test and if it shows that they were worried and well, then they go about their lives and they don’t need to worry.

“If that simple blood pressure test shows actually there’s something to be worried about, then they can go and see their GP knowing that there’s something wrong that their GP will need to help them with.”

The Labour cabinet minister added: “I think what we’ll see here is a whole load of additional services and a level of ease and convenience for people that will actually help take the pressure off some of our stretched GPs locally.”

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