THE five GP practices in and around Alton are working together to set up a groundbreaking community well-being hub.

To be held at Chawton Park Surgery, the first hub drop-in session is due to take place next Thursday (November 16), from 10am-2pm.

Designed to help patients access the right person, agency or organisation, rather than making an unnecessary visit to their GP, the aim of the ‘A31 Community Wellbeing Hub’ is to try to address the problem of GP waiting lists.

As demand increases waiting times are getting longer, putting pressure on GPs and their patients, and local practices have decided to try to do something constructive to improve the situation for all concerned.

Based initially at the Chawton Park Surgery on Chawton Park Road in Alton, the well-being hub initiative is supported by the Wilson practice at the Alton Health Centre on Anstey Road, Bentley Village Surgery, Boundaries Surgery in Four Marks, and the Mansfield Park Surgery in Medstead.

According to Chawton Park Surgery practice manager Nicky Maule, the five surgeries share the same group of patients and, led by the North Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group and the NHS Choose Well campaign, which flags up the different services available to patients when they are feeling unwell, the idea was born for a well-being hub that can offer a drop-in facility, initially on a bi-weekly basis, to provide support and information, and to signpost patients to the best source of help.

The initiative is supported by the patient participation groups attached to all five practices, and by a growing number of local groups and organisations, including Healthwatch Hampshire – described as “the patient voice” in healthcare provision – as well local village ‘agents’, the emergency services, and the voluntary sector.

Chawton Park GP Dr Matt de Quincey said: “In an increasingly complex world in which the GP is not always the answer, the hub will be a resource for the 39,000 patients of the local A31 practices, to put them in contact with and signpost them toward a welter of community services and bodies without having to go through the doctor first.

“Just as the women’s institute, to our delight, came to our flu-jab clinic, so we hope that the hub will point people in the right direction and form networks when the greatest malaise is often not diabetes or dementia itself but loneliness and difficulties in accessing community support.”

According to Dr de Quincey, East Hampshire District Council has donated more than £900 toward the hub and the plan is to make it a twice-monthly event with its own website and varied input from local organisations and groups.

The hub is expected to have many features of a café while offering an opportunity to chat to members from a wide range of local groups and organisations which, for Thursday’s meeting, are expected to include the Princess Royal Trust (carers group), Citizens Advice, Healthwatch Hampshire, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, the dementia team from Hampshire Hospital, a police community officer, and Diabetes UK.

Dr de Quincey added: “We need to support this different and holistic way of thinking about well-being and look forward to seeing you there.”