The NHS and Local Communities

I met with some PCT people last week. The meeting was in a new Health Resource Centre, built under the Local Improvement Finance Trust scheme(the LIFT programme) for £7m.

The Centre is a wonderful building. It's light and airy, has 3 floors, a lovely atrium and even a half-decent car park. It houses a bunch of GP practices as well as a wide range of community services and a few specialist clinics, previously available only at the local DGH. I was so impressed I even took a couple of pictures.

But then I was taught an important lesson. Putting up a nice building and calling it a Health Resource Centre is not the same as acting as a Health Resource Centre. Whilst I was waiting at the Reception desk, a middle-aged, friendly woman came in and asked, politely, if she could leave a bunch of A5 leaflets alongside the lovely display boards promoting various local NHS services. Her leaflets were promoting a new local voluntary support group for people with Cancer. "I'm not sure let me check", said the Receptionist. A phone call ensued. Then came the reply "Oh dear, I'm sorry but we have a policy only to stock official NHS leaflets. Do your leaflets have an NHS logo on them by any chance? - No, I'm sorry then, but we can't take them".

I was reminded of this little story this morning when talking with my wife. For some reason, please don't ask why, my wife has decided to offer a home boarding service for dogs. She's produced some colourful posters and yesterday popped off to 3 local Vets to see if she could put the posters on their notice boards. All said yes, without hesitation, as did the 4 local shops, scattered around nearby villages, that she approached later the same day.

Apparantly vets and shop keepers consider themselves to be intergral parts of their local communities, but the NHS is still not sure.

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