NHS Newham

Supporting GPs to Drive Patient Care in Diverse Patient Populations

There are 66 practices within Newham, London, serving an ethnically diverse patient population of 320,000.

Newham has some of the worst deprivation in the country and in terms of health equality; it has amongst the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the UK, high levels of heart disease, late diagnosed cancer, especially breast cancer and high infant mortality rates. Scott Sweeney, Medicines Management Technician for NHS Newham, says, "There are 20 languages commonly spoken within Newham, which is challenging, but we’re working very hard for all our patients and are seeing improvements in life expectancy, infant mortality and reductions in teenage pregnancy."

“For me ScriptSwitch is a no brainer; it’s an easy win"- Scott Sweeney, Medicines Management Technican

The initial objective of introducing ScriptSwitch into Newham was to support the quality of prescribing.

There are many practices within Newham that are single or double-handed and as such the GPs in charge do not receive a lot of daily peer support in terms of medicines management and prescribing best practice.