From this month, all adult and children’s community healthcare services in Brent will be delivered by a single provider: Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH).
Brent residents may already use some services delivered by CLCH, as they currently provide falls prevention, health visiting and school nursing services for adults, children and families in Brent. From August 1, the Trust took on delivery of community healthcare services that were previously provided by London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH).
The transfer of services from one NHS provider to another is not uncommon and many service-users do not experience a change in how they access care when it does. For example, LNWH staff affected by the changes in Brent transferred to CLCH. This means that patients and families receiving care and treatment from these services will likely continue seeing the same member of staff as they did before and crucially, see no difference in the NHS care and support that they receive.
The move was agreed by key partners in the NW London Integrated Care System, including Brent Council, and everyone involved is working closely to make the transfer a smooth process.
Some may ask whether this change really matters, and my view is that it does. CLCH was selected because it specialises in delivering out-of-hospital community healthcare across 11 London boroughs and Hertfordshire. By realigning services under a single, dedicated provider, we will be able to more easily identify suitable ways of delivering care in Brent, to allow residents to access consistent, high-quality care.
Andrew Ridley, chief at CLCH, has commented: “The integration of community healthcare services across Brent will enable patients to receive high quality, specialist care, closer to home.
“Our longstanding experience of delivering community healthcare services across NW London will enable us to implement improvements collaboratively and efficiently, for the benefit of local residents and communities.”
The integration of services is part of the strategic direction for NW London, and is in line with changes taking place across the wider NHS landscape.
Under this new structure, the out-of-hospital services will work closer than ever with other CLCH community services in NW London, and LNWH will be able to focus on its acute and specialist services.
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