Towards the end of 2022, Lucy our Locality Lead, and our CEO Matt were invited to look at the new model of care for our Wards, especially Barking Riverside, as it’s not working currently. Because there isn’t a clinic as yet in Barking Riverside, the clinic in Thames View is overwhelmed with patients, making the waiting time for an appointment really long. During this meeting, Matt and Lucy had to debate the pros and cons of how the model is working currently. Dr. John (Aurora Medicare) and Zoinul Abidin (Head Of Universal Services & Community Solutions LBBD) also brought their thoughts to the conversation and suggested that those in the room, just create a drop-in session on a Friday (usually Dr. John’s day off). They both suggested people that could help support, such as; paramedics, Dr. Kalkat’s team, massage therapists from Heal Studios with the Thames Life team facilitating the running of the clinic.

Post an LBBD health drive and after a few more conversations with Lucy and Dr. John, the pilot drop-in session happened back on 17th March 2023 at the Thames Community Hub.

The pilot was such a success! So much so, in partnership with Thames Life,  Zoinul and Dr. John have agreed to make it an ongoing tour that will happen once a month until October 2023.