Southampton City Council, Solent NHS Trust and community partners have come together to launch the first ‘Health Hubs’ in the city this weekend, at St Mary's Fire Station and the Marlands Shopping Centre.
This from the council in their own words:
The Health Hubs will be trialled this Friday 18 March, at St Mary’s Fire Station (1pm – 8pm) and at the Marlands Shopping Centre, former Shoe Zone store this Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 March (10:30am – 6:30pm).
The trial will enable residents to access a range of services from cancer awareness to fitness checks so visitors can get to know their ‘heart age’.
Residents from across the City were invited to take part in a survey to establish which health services will be offered.
The Health Hubs will be offering a range of services alongside COVID-19 vaccinations such as:
- Cancer awareness
- Maternity & fertility vaccination advice
- COVID-19 vaccinations
- Children’s mental health
- Needle phobia
- Height, weight & BMI
- Blood pressure checks
- Know your heart age
- Sexual health
Angela Anderson, Clinical Director for the Solent NHS Trust vaccination programme, said: “Our pop-up vaccinations clinics have been really successful in reaching our communities. Working with the city council and community partners we want to open up this further by trialling Health Hubs – offering a range of health and wellbeing services to residents at the heart of the community.”
Debbie Chase, Director of Public Health for Southampton said: "These Health Hubs are really exciting. This is the first time many of the health services on offer can be accessed by the City’s residents in a non-traditional healthcare setting. Bringing health services into the community like this, we can start to address potential health issues long before they become problems."