Over the past two weeks, Community Health Partnerships (CHP) CEO, Wendy Farrington-Chadd, visited NHS LIFT facilities across London and the South to see integrated services and neighbourhood teams in action and discuss how the LIFT estate can continue to support local health provision.
At the Bristol visit, Wendy was joined by colleagues from University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB). The visit gave the team the opportunity to hear first‑hand feedback from tenants and partners, as well as to see the progress being made across several sites, including Shirehampton Health Centre, Fishponds Primary Care Centre, Whitchurch Health Centre and South Bristol Community Hospital.
At South Bristol Community Hospital, work is underway to repurpose existing space to create vital chemotherapy services and a new x‑ray facility. Once complete, these developments will bring life‑saving and diagnostic care into a community setting, reducing the need for patients to travel to the local acute hospital and supporting the wider ambition to deliver more care closer to home. Similarly, at Fishponds PCC and Shirehampton Health Centre, strong local service provision ensures that patients can be seen within their own community.
My recent visits to Bristol and London reinforced how essential the NHS LIFT estate is in supporting health provision in communities. From providing diagnostic scans within a primary care environment, to enabling lifechanging care in high quality, modern facilities, LIFT buildings play a crucial role in local health delivery. Making best use of our buildings through repurposing existing estate supports the Government’s aims to shift more services from hospitals into the community and build a neighbourhood health service. South Bristol Community Hospital is just one fantastic example with chemotherapy services moving into the building. We remain committed to working with our NHS partners to maximise the value of these assets, supporting the delivery of efficient, accessible, patient centred services that bring care closer to home.
Following the visit to Bristol, Wendy continued her programme of site visits in North London, joined by local CHP, LIFTCo and NHS teams from across the region. The visit included Finchley Memorial Hospital, Kentish Town Health Centre and Hornsey Central Neighbourhood Health Centre.
Finchley Memorial Hospital was an early adopter of the national Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) programme, delivering diagnostic services within a primary care setting, outside the traditional hospital environment and supporting the Government’s drive to reduce the backlog of diagnostic appointments. Since its opening, the centre has delivered nearly 500,000 scans across the community and continues to expand its service delivery. The CDC at Finchley Memorial Hospital is playing a key role in supporting the Government’s Plan for Change programme by enabling more out hours appointments at the convenience of patients.
Kentish Town Health Centre is recognised as a leader in neighbourhood health across North London. The East Camden Integrated Neighbourhood team operates from the facility, bringing together a multidisciplinary team of professionals including GPs, district nurses, social workers, mental health practitioners, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social prescribers. It has long been a pioneer in social prescribing, led by the James Wigg Practice, enabling GPs to offer non‑medical referral options alongside traditional treatments to support improved health and wellbeing.
The Health Centre was also recently recognised with the Architecture Today Award 2025 for buildings that have stood the test of time, a testament to the durability and ongoing value of NHS LIFT facilities in serving local communities.
Finally, the tour was rounded off with a visit to Hornsey Central Neighbourhood Health Centre. The centre is a key community hub, hosting a wide range of services, including a community led art project delivered in partnership with the local school to help encourage healthy living habits from a young age. The initiative also aims to highlight the significant impact of social determinants of health, which are estimated to account for around 80% of overall population health outcomes.
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