How will the NHS be relocated to local neighbourhoods? Health Committee quizzes experts
The Health and Social Care Committee holds the first evidence session of its new inquiry that will examine how the Government can physically relocate NHS services from major hospitals to neighbourhood locations.
Meeting details
The Committee has also published 61 written evidence submissions. There are submissions from property industry groups, charities, policy experts, Integrated Care Boards, NHS trusts and the royal colleges.
Developing the Neighbourhood Health Service is one of the Government’s long-term strategic changes that it has set for the NHS in the 10 Year Health Plan.
In this session the Committee will ask witnesses (details below) what has so far been learnt from the planned rollout of 250 Neighbourhood Health Centres, how those lessons might be informing plans made to co-locate services, and how money is being spent on refurbishing existing buildings and developing new ones.
In the second panel of this session, witnesses will be asked about how different forms of public-private funding schemes could be used, and how the Government and NHS leaders should avoid problems experienced in the past such as inflexible long-term contracts and getting tied into expensive maintenance contracts. There will be questions about specific models from the past and present, such as Private Finance Initiatives and the Local Improvement Finance Trust programme, and draw comparisons to international public-private models.
The Committee may also be interested to hear how the emphasis on having localised services will be reflected in rural and coastal areas where populations are more spread out, and the impact that co-located services will have on the intended neighbourhood workforce.
There may also be questions on how the NHS coordinates with local authorities on developing sites and sourcing funding through the planning system, for example with section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy.