Towards the end of last year, Lucy our Locality Health 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.
Out of this conversation, was a drive that LBBD did, but wasn’t specific to our Wards and wasn’t only about GP Drop-ins, but included drives for Covid vaccine jabs. Post this and after a few more conversations with Lucy and Dr. John, the pilot drop-in session happened back on 17th March at the Thames Community Hub.
The pilot was such a success! Though a bit spontaneous and with only 3 days of leafleting and marketing, we had hundreds of people attend and raved about how great it was. People were happy to not only get a free massage, but to also be able to get in front of a doctor and have their minds put at ease, which positively impacted the community.
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. Now with the backing of BRL as well, the sessions have grown legs with our first session happening last Friday 12th May, at The Warehouse.
This time we partnered with local community groups and organisations such as Sure Steps, JDS and The Village to name but a few in the social wellbeing space of the clinic.
It was truly heartwarming to get all the positive feedback from residents who were finally able to get to see their GP after waiting on referrals that have never come, or not being able to physically book an appointment!
Roughly 120 people were seen by the doctors and nurses for health checks and more, and it was amazing for us to see the change in their mood and demeanor as they left The Warehouse after just spending half an hour with us!
Without the two Dr. Johns and the support of Aurorer Medcare, this wouldn’t be possible. So we’d like to say a massive thank you to all the organisations who attended, all the residents who made it over to us and to our partners for making the event happen!
If you weren’t able to attend the event, or you know of an organisation that would like to attend future Drop-In Clinics, please do Get In Touch!
All future dates and venues are below! We look forward to seeing you at one or all of them in the coming months.
