A review of the health needs of the residents of East Merton

Background:

Merton is a borough in South London. The western half is affluent, the eastern half more deprived. 

What was the problem?

There were local plans to build a new health care facility in East Merton, but there was no recent needs assessment for the locality which could be used to help decide what role the facility might play in improving health and health care. The Director of Public Health in Merton asked PHAST to address this.

How did PHAST help?

We prepared a report on East Merton which assessed the health needs of the locality. The report summarised evidence about how the new facility could be used to improve health in the context of primary care in East Merton and the opportunity of the new facility. We presented the report to a working group of local authority and clinical commissioning group staff. The report emphasised the important of improving the quality of primary care.

What was the impact?

Merton Council and Merton Clinical Commissioning Group welcomed the report and made use of it in developing the business case for the new facility and in their wider primary care and commissioning work.