A new community heart failure service, which allows patients to receive care closer to home, has opened in Birmingham and Solihull ICB.
As part of the initiative, patients diagnosed with heart failure will be able to receive support from specialist nurses, community nurses and primary care staff.
Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, officially opened the service at Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre earlier this year.
Washwood Heath Health is one of six neighbourhood hubs to open across the ICB as part of the community care collaborative programme of care, which forms part of the government’s 10-Year Health Plan, aiming to move care from hospital to community.
Mr Kinnock said: ‘Washwood is leading the way, providing health and care services for the people of Saltley and Birmingham right on their doorstep.’
The minister added that the clinic offers ‘rapid access to diagnostic appointments, care and support in one place’, which ‘will ease pressure on hospitals’ and deliver ‘better, more convenient care for patients’.
Birmingham Community Healthcare (NHS) Foundation Trust has been appointed to lead the community care collaborative’s work.
Richard Kirby, chief executive at Birmingham Community Healthcare (NHS) Foundation Trust, said: ‘The addition of the new heart failure clinic to the existing services provided at this neighbourhood hub in East Birmingham marks a great advance in how we are trying to better deliver healthcare more locally for patients.’
The hub is one of the 43 initiatives to have been selected to take part in the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP).
The NNHIP seeks to ‘transform the health and care of neighbourhoods’ and initially involves the establishment of neighbourhood health systems and processes.
ICB chief executive David Melbourne said the hub being selected for inclusion was a ‘strong endorsement of the partnership approach’ to tackling health inequalities.
Latest government data from 3 February 2026 shows there are 675 family hub sites in England, which are separate from neighbourhood health centres.
Last month, a report from the Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) urged the government to explain how family hubs will work with neighbourhood health centres.
Washwood Heath Health and Wellbeing Centre is being run by Heartlands Hospital, part of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
A version of this story first appeared on our sister title Pulse PCN.
