Healthcare professionals from the National University Health System, Singapore, recently visited the East Birmingham locality hub in Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre to learn about the city’s innovative approach to creating a neighbourhood health service.
Neighbourhood health is about shifting care closer to home and joining up services across local government, social care, and the voluntary sector.
Birmingham has the highest share of residents living in the most deprived areas with 43% of people living in areas that are ranked in the 10% most deprived areas nationally. The neighbourhood health service aims to create healthier communities, helping people of all ages live healthy, active and independent lives for as long as possible.
The project at Washwood helped test and shape the Birmingham and Solihull Neighbourhood Health Service model that was used to mobilise a further five Locality Hubs across Birmingham and Solihull in October 2025. The site contains a range of diagnostic services as well as the x-ray facilities, including an urgent treatment centre and additional clinical space providing ultrasound, phlebotomy, echo cardiogram, lung function and ECG diagnostic services in addition to ah mobile MRI scanner situated on the car park.
During their visit the trio visited the care co-ordination centre and the Respiratory Same Day Emergency Care and Heart Failure clinics. This service is part of the wider East Birmingham expansion of health and care services bringing care out of hospital into the community. The service has recently celebrated seeing over 1,500 patients in its first year of operation.
They also observed how GPs, social workers, mental health practitioners, social prescribers, clinical health practitioners and voluntary sector partners work as a single, unified team to support residents with more complex needs.
The hosts shared the locality and neighbourhood health model that has been developed by the Birmingham and Solihull (BSOL) healthcare system and how this is addressing the wider determinants of health, such as housing and social isolation, alongside medical treatment.
Also shared were the governance and data-sharing models that have also been developed that allow multi-organisational teams to coordinate care at a neighbourhood level in real-time.
Learning more about locality hubs across Birmingham and Solihull as well as the work of the integrated neighbourhood teams has been eye-opening. In Singapore, we are working towards delivering integrated heath-social care in the community and Birmingham’s ability to weave social prescribing and community partnerships into the medical model offers a powerful blueprint for refining our population health approach
Washwood has quite rightly been described as a pioneer within the delivery of neighbourhood health services. It has been fantastic to see the development of the building over the past few years and to welcome the visitors from Singapore. They saw a building that shows what can be achieved through placing the right services, in the right neighbourhood, for patients. It was a privilege to share knowledge with professionals another part of the world in what is an important building
The visitors took part in the International Integrated Care Conference, which was in Birmingham from 13–15 April 2026. The conference brought together more than 1,000 global health and care leaders to share innovations in policy, practice, and the integration of health and social care services.
Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre serves as an example of creative problem solving and innovative design by CHP and its partners in Birmingham. It also shows the effective use of the public estate and support for primary care estate strategy. Bringing the right services to the heart of the community, helping to reduce the NHS backlog and driving productivity within a modern and well-equipped workspace. The integration of state-of-the-art MRI scanning and mental health services further solidifies Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre’s position as a vital hub for Birmingham’s healthcare landscape.
Get support from CHP
Get in touch with your CHP Regional Director and regional Property and Operations team to find out how they can support clinical services at CHP buildings providing high-quality, modern, core NHS facilities for patients in their local communities.
