The NHS and its partners in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are strengthening the way health and care services work together through neighbourhood health.
Neighbourhood health is a new way of organising health and care services around local people. It brings together NHS services, local authorities, social care, and the voluntary sector to deliver more joined-up, proactive, and community-based care. This will be central to delivering the national ten-year plan for the NHS and it’s three major shifts – from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention, and from analogue to digital – locally across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
There is no “one-size-fits-all” model for how neighbourhood health will be delivered. We’re co-designing approaches with communities that respond to their needs and build on their strengths.
Through neighbourhood health we will bring together multi-disciplinary teams of health and care professionals to:
- Focus on prevention by supporting patients earlier to improve outcomes
- Offer proactive wrap-around care for our most vulnerable patients, avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions and tackling health inequalities
- Improve access to GP Practices, community pharmacy and other community settings in your neighbourhood
- Reduce pressure on hospitals and emergency services
- Make services easier to navigate and improve patient satisfaction for all
Integrated Neighbourhood Teams
Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) bring together health and care professionals from across disciplines and organisations to offer joined up care. The teams may include:
- GPs and the extended practice team
- Community nurses and allied health professionals
- Social care teams
- Hospital teams and specialists
- Pharmacists
- Mental health practitioners
- Voluntary and community sector partners
By working as one team around individuals and families, neighbourhood teams aim to improve health outcomes, reduce inequalities, and help people avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
CASE STUDY
Brunel PCN (Primary Care Network) Integrated Neighbourhood Team support vulnerable patients in Portsmouth
The Integrated Neighbourhood Team (INT) at the Brunel PCN in Portsmouth brings together professionals from across a range of services to offer wrap around support to their most vulnerable patients.
Emma Mclocklan, Business Manager at Brunel PCN in Portsmouth, said: “The goal of our INT is to offer more person-centred care out in the community which is ultimately improving the patient experience and avoiding admissions to hospital. The team has grown to include nurses, care coordinators, social prescribers, GP assistants and others. Their focus is on three priority groups - supporting our most vulnerable and frail patients, palliative and cancer-care patients, and young adults. We also have a team dedicated to caring for homeless and people that rough sleeping across the whole of Portsmouth.”
You can hear Emma alongside Phil Charlton, Enhanced Practice Nurse at Brunel PCN, explain the role of the team and how they work in this short video.
Neighbourhood Health Centres
Neighbourhood health is chiefly about new ways of working to bring care closer to home. But there are also opportunities, working with all our local authority and NHS partners, to make sure we’re making the best use of both existing NHS buildings and seeking opportunities where appropriate to create new spaces from which to deliver care. The Andover Health Hub is one example of how, working with local councils and NHS providers, we are able to bring proactive and preventative healthcare to the local high street.
CASE STUDY
Andover Health Hub brings care into the heart of the community
Andover Health Hub, located in the town’s Chantry shopping centre offers essential health services in the heart of the community. Created through a partnership between Test Valley Borough Council and local NHS organisations, the hub offers a range of services including community mental health support, vaccination clinics and prostate cancer screening.
Leader of Test Valley Borough Council, Councillor Phil North, said: “This is an amazing facility for local residents and the expansion is testament to the health hub’s success and the hard work of all those partners who have come together over the years to deliver and expand the hub.
“We know from engaging with residents through community-led processes such as Andover Vision that having access to good quality local healthcare is a priority. Working with our NHS colleagues has given us the opportunity to create a truly fantastic facility that continues to grow its offering in a brilliant location. An added benefit for local businesses has been the increased footfall, evidencing that the positive impact of the health hub has been felt far and wide.”
Read more about Andover Health Hub on the Test Valley Borough council website.
Improving access to general practice
One of the first steps on the road to delivering more truly proactive and easy to access care in the community is to improve access to general practice and local pharmacies.
GP Practices across Hampshire and Isle of Wight are now offering record levels of access to meet rising demand, with practices delivering over a million appointments a month on average.
While GPs are still the core of practice teams, they are now supported by a wide range of skilled professionals. Depending on their needs, patients may be offered an appointment with a specialist such as a mental health practitioner, a paramedic, an advance nurse practitioner, a pharmacist, a physiotherapist or a dietician.
These are all experts who are specially trained to provide advice, diagnosis, and treatment for patients. This approach not only improves access but also helps ensure patients get the right care sooner, reduces pressure on GPs, and expands the range of services available closer to home. They can also offer more specialist advice and care for conditions that GPs could not do alone.
Pharmacies play vital role in neighbourhood health
More patients than ever are using the Pharmacy First Programme. The latest figures show that between April 2025 and March 2026 more than 110,000 people used their pharmacy in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to access prescription medication to treat one of seven common conditions covered by the scheme. These would all previously have required a GP appointment. Over 90,000 people also used their local pharmacy to get their blood pressure checked, as the role of pharmacy in preventative and proactive care continues to expand.
James Roach, Director of Primary Care and Local Care at NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight, said:
“Neighbourhood health is a huge opportunity for us to build on the work already taking place to improve people’s access to care and support for our most vulnerable patients more effectively. As demand for health and care services continues to grow, it is now vital that we work collaboratively and bring care closer to home.
“As well as improving access, we are strengthening our focus on prevention, helping people stay well for longer and shifting our efforts from treating sickness to preventing it. Together we want to renew our approach to care in community settings and further reduce healthcare inequalities and disparities
“Neighbourhood health is truly everyone’s business and we are incredibly proud of the progress being made and the commitment our teams show every day to meeting the needs of our communities. We would also like to thank our patients for willing to engage with new services.”
CASE STUDY
Copnor Pharmacy team becoming a core pillar of neighbourhood health
Copnor Pharmacy in Portsmouth is demonstrating how community pharmacy can play a central role in neighbourhood health. The pharmacy has become a trusted frontline service, delivering vaccines and enthusiastically embracing new NHS services to improve the support available for residents. Strong collaboration with the Derby Road Group Practice, which has around 17,000 patients, has helped position Copnor Pharmacy as a key partner in the community.
Rather than increasing headcount, the pharmacy has been focussing on upskilling its existing workforce - technicians and pharmacy staff can now support with things like blood pressure checks, contraception advice and Pharmacy First consultations, allowing pharmacists to concentrate on clinical assessments. The addition of a second consultation room also allows for multiple services to run at the same time.
This approach has strengthened the relationship between community pharmacy and general practice, improving patients’ access to care while helping reduce pressure on GP services.
Next steps - defining your neighbourhoods
We are now engaging with all our local communities to help set the areas that will become the neighbourhood health footprints across Hampshire Isle of Wight. The proposed neighbourhoods will then be confirmed through local Health and Wellbeing Boards, working with local authorities and all other local partners and stakeholders.
This spring we heard from over 1200 people through our survey on proposals to create 24 neighbourhoods across the Hampshire county area. The main findings were:
- Low awareness - only 28% of respondents were aware of the term “Neighbourhood Health” and what it involves.
- Neighbourhood boundaries - 59% agreed that services should be organised geographically. Around 50% felt the proposed neighbourhoods were appropriate, with significant feedback suggesting some refinement was needed.
- Community voice important - 80% highlighted the importance of community involvement in shaping neighbourhood health services.
- Opportunities from neighbourhood working - improved access, more coordinated care, and stronger community connections were seen as opportunities.
- Concerns – lack of clarity on how it will be delivered, potential for inequalities between areas, concerns over how coordination will work in practice.
The final report of the survey is available to read on our Insights Library. The findings are now being used to inform the next steps of this process for Hampshire and how we will engage with the rest of our communities in Southampton, Portsmouth and on the Isle of Wight.
We will be sharing more about neighbourhood health as plans develop further. To make sure you receive the latest information direct to your inbox you can sign up to receive news from us directly to your inbox, and you can follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
