Nearly all the first wave of “neighbourhood health centres” (NHC) – currently being developed for launch by next year – were already doing the job required of the model, government documents reveal.
Ministers – who have used the centres as a high-profile symbol of delivering their 10-Year Health Plan – announced in March that 27 would be opened by 2027.
The Department of Health and Social Care said at the time that the centres would mean “tens of thousands of patients… will benefit from improved healthcare on their doorstep”.
Government has previously accepted that many NHCs will be created from “upgrading, repurposing, or extending” existing NHS buildings.
However, documents obtained by HSJ reveal for the first time that, for 22 of the 27, officials recorded they “could already be considered an NHC” when they were considered for acceptance to the programme.
An industry source, who wished to remain anonymous, told HSJ: “It’s an open secret in the sector that lots of these sites are already performing the function required of NHCs.”
They said most were community centres built under a national private finance scheme in the 2000s and “were designed to do exactly the same thing” at that time.
The source added that: “Labour seems to have taken a leaf out of the Tories’ [new hospital programme] playbook on a more modest scale.” This meant, they said, finding out “what projects were underway already” and then to “badge them up as a programme”.
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Source: HSJ, 29 June 2026
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