The Willesden Green and Harlesden public libraries and Chalkhill community centre are the first in the country to have self-service health ‘pods’ connected directly to local GP surgeries.
The pods have been installed by the Brent Health Matters programme, run jointly by Brent Council and the NHS.
Hannah Atherley, a 75-year-old from Wembley, tried the pod at the Chalkhill centre.
“It’s easy to use and a good idea to have the pod here,” she says. “It’s not easy to get a GP appointment for some people or get to the surgery.
“It makes me feel reassured that I can get information about my health right here.”
The pods, where people can measure their heart rate, take blood pressure or complete stress and anxiety questionnaires, are said to be “easy to use”.
“Everyone who comes here should be able to use it,” Hannah insists. “The machine works in different languages because there are people who may struggle in English.”
The pods use Gujarati, Urdu, Somali, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Arabic, Farsi and Kurdish as well as English. They have recorded 1,000 interactions so far, linked to a dozen GP practices from Kilburn to Kingsbury.
Similar pods have been used elsewhere in Britain — but only the user gets the results and is left to act on them under their own steam.
The initiative by Brent Health Matters, instead, links the pods to the NHS secure data system, giving the result from patients directly to their GPs who can then act on it if necessary.
Brent Council’s cabinet member for public health Cllr Neil Nerva said: “Preventative action helps catch health issues earlier. Brent is leading this ground-breaking initiative for a more-accessible NHS and better outcomes for patients.”
A demonstration is being held at Willesden Green Library on October 22 at 11am, to show how easy the self-service ‘health check’ machine is to use and the range of services it provides.
Local GPs, councillors and staff from the Microtech company that produced the machine are on hand to answer questions and explain how the pods help speed up health care.
