On Thursday 29 January, Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister of State for Care, visited Washwood Health and Wellbeing Centre, Birmingham, to explore how integrated partnership working is helping deliver a wide range of services in the building.
The visit, hosted by Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHC), enabled the Minister, who is leading on neighbourhood health, to see the East Birmingham Locality Hub at the building. Washwood Heath was chosen as the pilot site for the first hub in Birmingham and Solihull due to the health inequalities of the population and the proximity to nearby Heartlands Hospital.
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 Hubs bring to life the ambitions set out in the Government’s 10-year NHS plan, shifting care from hospitals to communities, moving from treatment to prevention and from analogue to digital.
Community Heart Failure Service offically opened
During the visit, the Minister officially opened a new community heart failure service at Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre, home to the East Birmingham Locality Hub.
Patients diagnosed with heart failure in Birmingham and Solihull have been given improved access to essential care through the service, which is provided by Heartlands Hospital, part of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. It will enable patients with heart failure to be monitored and receive routine appointments closer to home with access to specialist heart failure nurses working closely with community nurses and primary care colleagues.
Asgher Khan, aged 55 years-old, from Yardley has intravenous (IV) furosemide daily, which relieves fluid congestion and breathing difficulties in patients with heart failure. He received this treatment at Heartlands Hospital but is now able to go to Washwood Heath.
The service is priceless. I get more of a personal relationship with the team; it's like a VIP service. I used to feel quite stressed going into hospital, but at Washwood Heath, once you're done, you can go home. The team make sure you're comfortable, do all the necessary checks, like your blood pressure and weight, and are there to discuss any problems and give reassurance and guidance. It's real one-to-one care. I'm so grateful.
This new clinic will help us to wrap care around our patients, giving them essential community care, helping improve their quality of care and overall long-term health outcomes. “This is an exciting extension to the Respiratory Same Day Emergency Care service launched at the Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre a year ago.
I was delighted to visit Washwood Health and Wellbeing Centre - one of our pioneering neighbourhood health services - and to open the new heart failure clinic. Through our 10 Year Health Plan we are shifting care from hospital to community, bringing it closer to where people live. Washwood is leading the way, providing health and care services for the people of Saltley and Birmingham right on their doorstep. The new clinic offers patients rapid access to diagnostic appointments, care and support in one place. This will ease pressure on hospitals, while delivering better, more convenient care for patients.
Front row: Cllr Mariam Khan, Ed Landon, Hospital Operations Director for Heartlands Hospital, Minister of State, Stephen Kinnock MP, Stuart Lackenby, Executive Director Adult Social Care and Health Birmingham City Council, Dr Subeena Suleman, Chair of BSol ICS’s GP Partnership Board and BSol ICB’s Primary Care Medical Services Partner Member and Joanne Heartland, Associate Director of Nursing (Clinical Delivery Group 1A), Heartlands Hospital.
Back row: Richard Kirby, Chief Executive, BCHC NHS Foundation Trust and David Melbourne, Chief Executive, NHS Birmingham, Solihull and NHS Black Country.
In addition, the touring party saw how the care co-ordination team, and in-reach colleagues at Heartlands Hospital, discuss patients that could be discharged with additional support. After this, they saw the Respiratory Same-Day Emergency Care delivered by University Hospitals Birmingham which launched in December 2024.
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.
Alongside the Minister of State for Care, CHP welcomed Birmingham City Council Leader, John Cotton to Washwood Heath on 2 February. The purpose of the visit was to showcase the work within the building, enabling Councillor Cotton to see the East Birmingham Locality Hub located at Washwood Heath Health & Wellbeing Centre (WWH) in action. Throughout the visit, accompanied by CHP Regional Director for the Midlands, James Weaver, it was highlighted how Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INT) are using accessible real time data intelligence to understand patient need in the area.
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 Minister of State for Care. He saw a building that shows what can be achieved through placing the right services, in the right neighbourhood, for patients.
The addition of the new heart failure clinic to the existing services provided at this neighbourhood hub in East Birmingham marks a great advance in how we are trying to better deliver healthcare more locally for patients. This community-based specialist care is enabling earlier interventions and helping residents manage their health closer to home which is where we know they would prefer to be.
The East Birmingham Locality Hub is one of 43 initiatives across Birmingham, the Black Country and Solihull that have been selected to take part in the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, which is a strong endorsement of the partnership approach we are taking to tackle stark and unjust health inequalities by designing services around communities rather than organisations.
Read more in our case study: Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre: Innovative utilisation supporting productivity
Read about our work across the midlands: From Isolation to Integration: Remodelling the Neighbourhood Health Service Across the Midlands
