Neighbourhood health services: the impact on neurology care

The Labour Government has put neighbourhood health services central to its vision for the future NHS, its aim being to help people to live well in their local communities and reduce the need for care delivered in hospitals. Labour's election manifesto committed to shifting resources to community-based services and delivering care closer to home. Neighbourhood health was also reinforced in the NHS 10 year plan, ‘Fit for the future’, as a way to provide ‘convenient care, at a time and place that fits around people's lives’. Neighbourhood health is about care rooted in communities – close to where people live, work and connect. It begins and ends with listening to local people, recognising their insight and lived experience and building on all community assets. Through this approach, the NHS and social care can provide early, joined-up support that prevents crises, reduces disability and enables people to live active and fulfilling lives, even when living with long-term neurological conditions. This article highlights how this policy will affect neurology care.