Community trust chief appointed to lead NHS neighbourhood health programme

Professor James Benson, chief executive of Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, has been appointed NHS England’s national lead for neighbourhood health.

Benson will oversee the development and implementation of the programme across England while continuing to lead CLCH. He succeeds Dr Claire Fuller, who is due to step down from the national role at the end of October.

Neighbourhood health is central to the government’s ten-year NHS plan and aims to move more care away from hospitals and into local communities. The model is expected to bring together GPs, community teams, mental health services, hospitals, councils and voluntary organisations to provide more coordinated and preventative support.

Supporters argue that patients could receive diagnostics, rehabilitation, mental health care and help with long-term conditions closer to home. However, questions remain over how the reforms will affect existing GP surgeries, whether neighbourhood centres will complement or replace current services and how new buildings and multidisciplinary teams will be funded and staffed.

Benson said he had seen the benefits of organising services around communities and would work across the health and care system to make neighbourhood health a reality. CLCH already provides community services to more than four million people across London and Hertfordshire.

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