A Sunderland GP has highlighted how it's vital that the NHS makes it easier for those living in deprived areas to access healthcare and explained how a new scheme seeing psychologists in GP practices could transform lives.
Speaking ahead of the NHS's 75th birthday, Dr Martin Weatherhead is a GP at Bridge View Medical Group in Sunderland, which is part of the "Deep End" network of practices serving some of the North East's most deprived communities. He welcomed the new funding boost - part of a £35m investment from the North East and North Cumbria's NHS Integrated Care Board - which will see pilot programmes with psychologists working alongside family doctors in the community expanded.
He said that measures like this were essential in ensuring the NHS was accessible to those in need. Speaking to ChronicleLive, he said that feedback from medics working in practices like his had helped direct the plan. He said: "We were able to identify that big issues were recruitment and retention - that it's harder to get staff to work in these practices than others - and also that the mental health of these populations is significantly impacted.
"We knew we had to do something about improving access to mental health support as we know so many of our patients struggle with serious mental health issues. GPs and nurse practitioners are very competent at dealing with this, but they have one way of working and looking at things - and having that different way of looking at things [from a psychologist] can be beneficial.
"When patients have challenging lives, particularly if they are facing financial hardships, getting the bus to a hospital or an clinic can be a substantially difficult thing for them to do. If you are delivering services in their neighbourhoods it makes it that much more accessible. It's easier for someone to get to, they're more likely to be familiar with their local GP practice. For people with mental health problems getting a bus to somewhere unfamiliar can be really challenging."
Dr Weatherhead said that - against the backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis which has exacerbated inequality - people living in the most deprived areas were more likely to have greater health needs, with social factors such as housing, employment and alcohol having an outsized impact on people's mental health.
He added that there were different models in place around the region in terms of how psychologists would be working in GP practices, but that bringing psychologists from hospitals into community settings would hopefully see a model which has improved outcomes in some practices already replicated.
He spoke more widely about the "Deep End" network, adding: "The fundamental idea behind the Deep End network is we needed to think about how we deliver services to people in these areas of high deprivation.
"Even where they are good services, the way in which we deliver them can lead to health inequalities. The issue is if you improve services you can actually increase inequality - because the people who don't tend to access these things tend to be the people living in the poorest postcodes.
"Obviously the social determinants of health have a real impact, but we exacerbate them by delivering services in a way which can discourage people from the most deprived communities from engaging."
The project is one of a number being funded by the ICB - with other initiatives including support for those among the seven million NHS patients on the waiting list for surgery, and extra help for those facing alcohol and tobacco dependency among a range of ways health bosses are hoping to improve our health and help us to live longer, healthier lives.
