On the 10th of November 2023, NELFT were awarded the Collaborative Project of the Year award at the 2022/2023 RCGP North East London Faculty Recognition Awards.

The Barking and Dagenham Children’s Services has been working in collaboration with the Primary Care Networks and local partners as part of a programme of community events in Barking and Dagenham to improve patients’ awareness and access to different services and offers in the borough. This collaborative approach and holding these community events including open surgeries have enabled residents to access support, advise, speak to professionals/clinicians, and raise awareness about their health and wellbeing.

The initiative has been recognised by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) in making a difference in the community and has been awarded the '2022/23 RCGP North East London Faculty Recognition Awards – Collaborative Project of the Year.'

The Barking & Dagenham team attended the RCGP Award event on Friday 10th November 2023 with local partners who are involved in this project at the Royal College of General Practitioners in Euston Square.

Dr Jagan John is a GP at Aurora Medcare, AMD for Primary Care (BHRUT) and Personalised Care Clinical Director - NHS England (London) said:

“This collaborative project which was awarded an RCGP award was piloted in Barking on Thames view/Riverside area. This was an integrated GP pop-up clinic between Thames Life community group, Aurora Medcare-GP surgery, New West PCN, NELFT- HV and talking therapies LBBD services- social prescribing, housing and 12 different community groups to improve access to services and reduce health inequalities by going to hard-to-reach areas.

“We saw about 3000 patients over 6 clinics in community buildings across the area and relooked at demand by supporting people to address their holistic issues as well as medical issues, and empowered patients to support themselves and find solutions using the assets of the local people and services.

“We also had multi-disciplinary solutions at point of contact for local residents using the teams present and became an 'anchor ' pop-up clinic encouraging local people and students to consider careers in health and social care. As a collective team we found it to be a really enjoyable and fulfilling experience and we became a 'neighbourhood' team as we improved by constantly getting feedback from residents and staff to make the next clinic better.’’

Gemma McCool, from NELFT's Barking & Dagenham 0-19 Services, also said:

‘’The community drop-in clinics first came to my attention during a meeting with Dr John to discuss some vulnerable families on our caseloads. The incentive seemed an amazing opportunity to engage some of our hard-to-reach families and provide an essential service to the local community.”