NHS shelves plan for mobile GP clinic after concerns raised by Coquetdale community

Currently, a GP or nurse from The Rothbury Practice, which is part of Northumbria Primary Care, provides a Thursday clinic in the village hall in Harbottle.

A consultation period and engagement exercise found that the majority of people want the weekly Harbottle GP clinic to continue to be delivered from the village hall.

David Pierce, senior group manager for Northumbria Primary Care, said: “Our decision demonstrates that what people think in the local communities we serve does really matter and that we do listen to and take feedback on board.

“We would like to thank everyone that has given feedback on this proposal and understand the concerns that people have in relation to where the mobile health unit would have parked, patient privacy, toilet access and accessing the mobile unit, especially in inclement weather.

"This proposal would not have resulted in a reduction to current primary care services provided in Harbottle but we appreciate that this is something that people were worried about too and that they are satisfied with the clinic in Harbottle being provided from the village hall.”

Jamie Mitchell, strategic head of estates for North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), said: "We have listened to local people's views and understand the concerns that some residents have expressed. We will continue to explore different options to bring clinical services closer to rural communities in as fair and equitable a way as possible."

A mobile healthcare unit would be able to travel and deliver GP, public health and community/voluntary sector services in different communities.

Mr Pierce continued: “Looking at ways we can enhance our services and improve patient care and experience is always at the forefront of the decisions we make.

"As part of this, we intend to look at the possibility of using a mobile healthcare unit to serve areas of Northumberland and North Tyneside.

"Engagement feedback does indicate that people do support the idea of having the mobile healthcare unit in addition to the primary care services we currently provide.

"We will need to give more consideration to the logistics of using a mobile unit. We are sure that it will further improve the health and wellbeing of our local communities.”

Examples of the services that could be delivered in from a mobile healthcare unit in local communities include vaccination clinics, annual health checks, blood pressure checks, public health services (like stop smoking clinics) and voluntary and community sector engagement and services. With the unit being mobile, where possible, it could be responsive to the healthcare needs of local communities, as long as the workforce is available to support this.

Healthwatch Northumberland produced an independent report which is available at https://healthwatchnorthumberland.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Harbottle-engagement-report.pdf.

Derry Nugent, project co-ordinator at Healthwatch Northumberland, said: “Healthwatch Northumberland’s role is to ensure the patient’s voice is heard when decisions are being made that affect their care. This certainly happened here, and we know it will encourage dialogue between other services and their patients.”