NHS Kent and Medway has been allocated just under £6 million to to further address health inequalities, outcomes, experience and access.
The integrated care board’s (ICB) four health and care partnerships (HCP) will each receive a share of £4.755million, while £1.1million has been allocated to Kent and Medway-wide schemes.
Kent and Medway-wide, the funding will focus on reducing inequalities in hypertension using the successful hypertension heroes initiative, which aims to increase the number of people being diagnosed and help them understand how to manage their blood pressure.
Using its £670,000, Dartford, Gravesham, Swanley will fund a project to increase uptake and/or access to its obesity, diabetes, cancer screening and respiratory.
Medway and Swale will receive £1,095,000 for six projects. Two will focus on improving outcomes for children and young people, including tackling asthma in deprived populations and development of a specialist weight management service, supporting children and families to lose weight, eat healthily and exercise.
With its allocation of £1,965,000 for six projects, East Kent HCP will use some for a diabetes clinic designed to help people with the disease through a combination of physical and mental health support.
West Kent HCP will receive £1,026,000 and a proportion of this will be used for continued provision of Shepway Community Larder, which supports around 300 people a month by providing fresh and healthy food. The 2023/24 boost means the larder can continue to help reduce food insecurity, which impacts on residents’ and their families’ physical and mental wellbeing.
NHS Kent and Medway ICB chief executive Paul Bentley said: ‘I’m very pleased to be able to support these exciting and innovative projects, that focus on tackling the wider determinants of health.
‘Funding for these initiatives allows us to continue to listen to communities with curiosity and work with them to design, implement and evaluate interventions that provide the solutions they need.
‘Shepway Community Larder is an outstanding example of this. The larder demonstrates what can be achieved when local people are involved in design and delivery of a health intervention and when partners from across health, local authorities and business work together.’
