We are nearing the end of our mini series of podcasts about universal healthcare, in collaboration with London South Bank University and the Universal Healthcare Network.

With the NHS experiencing overwhelming demand, we need radical transformation with more power and resources within communities.

So today, Bill Graham, who is a Community Coordinator with Modality Partnership, focuses on community-based solutions!

Bill talks about the need for primary care to engage with communities and gives examples of how this works in practice, e.g maximising COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Asian populations and increasing childhood vaccination rates.

Bill highlights the success of community-led initiatives, such as health checks at sports events and baby days in shopping centres.

Bill also mentions the multi-generational home visiting project and digital outreach initiatives to enhance patient engagement. He calls for more investment in community solutions and stresses the importance of practical, asset-based approaches in healthcare.

Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋

🍋 Magic happens when primary care breaks out of the day-to-day cycle and starts to do things differently … High Street health!

🍋 Engage with local communities - they have a vital role to play in helping people look after their health

🍋 Get out and about, build relationships with your community and find out what is important to them

🍋 This episode has lots of practical examples of how to make healthcare more accessible by taking it out to where people are

🍋 Be culturally curious and find out what works for different populations

🍋 Shift power and be imaginative with resources

🍋 Be proactive – if people are not coming forward for health checks, try multi-generational home visiting?

🍋 Support family carers too - often the unsung heroes of health care

🍋 Turn theory and data into ACTION to address health inequalities

🍋 Volunteers can help people access health-related technology and start to close the digital divide

🍋 Don’t overthink things – start somewhere!

Some links :
Universal HealthCare National Inquiry
Easy Read Executive Summary
10 Leaps Forward - Innovation in the pandemic
Noreen Bukhari - supporting women from ‘BAME’ communities
Gill's Universal Healthcare work with MPFT

#coproduction #communities #funding #equity #healthinequalities #storytelling #passion #QI

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I tweet as @WhoseShoes and @WildCardWS and am on Instagram as @WildCardWS.

Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

And so we continue our mini series of podcasts on universal healthcare, in collaboration with London South Bank University and the Universal Healthcare Network!

Kim Shutler shares insights on the role of the voluntary sector in healthcare, with a focus on community-based solutions.

With the NHS experiencing overwhelming demand, we need radical transformation with more power and resources within communities.

Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋
🍋 Let’s maximise voluntary sector potential in health care

🍋 Create the conditions for VCSEs to thrive and transform healthcare by shifting power and resources closer to communities.

🍋 Old system HAS bitten back post-pandemic, due to governance structures and statutory provisions – but we KNOW we can do things more imaginatively!

🍋 Success comes from relationships, passionate individuals, a local knowledge

🍋 We need a bottom-up approach to healthcare transformation

🍋 Value and build trust with communities and local organisations

🍋 Collaborate across boundaries to maximise innovation and resources

🍋 Make decisions WITH people to avoid unintended consequences

🍋 Use imaginative, inclusive ideas like participatory budgeting

🍋 Enable small organisations to focus on work, rather than bidding for work

🍋 Cut the jargon and hoops to jump through!

🍋 Open doors - find out what local voluntary organisations are doing and find opportunities to collaborate

🍋 VCSEs should approach local practices and primary care networks to explore partnership opportunities

🍋 Primary care can run clinics and health checks in voluntary sector buildings to engage communities

🍋 Different localities require unique solutions, but key principles save you re-inventing the wheel

🍋 Decision-making power shift can be uncomfortable for those used to traditional distribution of money

🍋 Social prescribing is important to address social needs and reduce medicalisation

🍋 Social prescribing is great … but not if there are lots of travel agents and no holidays!!

🍋 Practice-based peer support workers with lived experience of mental health problems can provide community-based support, funded by the GP practice

🍋 Invest in communities and hand over power to drive change

🍋 Start small. Start somewhere!

Links:
Becky Malby – Universal Healthcare - podcast
Universal HealthCare National Inquiry
Easy Read Executive Summary
10 Leaps Forward - Innovation in the pandemic
Gill's Universal Healthcare work with MPFT

The Art of the possible Gill's poem inspired by the conversation with Kim Shutler

We LOVE it when you leave a review!
If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful
please share your thoughts by leaving a review (Apple is easiest to leave a review) and comment on your favourite episodes.

I tweet as @WhoseShoes and @WildCardWS and am on Instagram as @WildCardWS.

Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

🎙️ Wildcard Whose Shoes? - “Don’t Medicalise Poverty” with Dr. George Winder, GP in Leeds

In this powerful episode of ‘Wildcard - Whose Shoes?’, host Gill Phillips sits down with Dr. George Winder, a passionate GP from Leeds, to explore a critical issue in healthcare: the medicalisation of poverty. George shares eye-opening stories from his work, revealing how social injustice and poverty affect health and well-being—and why simply prescribing medication isn’t the answer.

Gill and George discuss real-life examples of how local care partnerships and community support networks are making a difference in Leeds. From housing and domestic violence to food hunger, George shares his team’s innovative approaches to tackling the root causes of illness. Listen in to learn how co-produced solutions and third-sector collaboration are transforming lives—like “V,” who went from being dependent on medication to becoming a community leader.

If you’re passionate about social justice, healthcare reform, or community well-being, this conversation will inspire and challenge you.

Tune in and take a walk in someone else’s shoes! 🎧

Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋
🍋The NHS is medicalising poverty - we need to address the root causes of health inequalities - the wider determinants of health
🍋 George shares practical examples of how we can work together to create a healthcare system that truly supports those in need
🍋 Use asset-based approaches
🍋 Focus on addressing need
🍋 Go out to where people are, rather than expecting them to come to you
🍋 Storytelling is very powerful in this
🍋 Co-produced solutions and third-sector collaboration are transforming lives
🍋 More resources would mean more people could be helped

Links to earlier episodes in this Universal Healthcare series:
Becky Malby - What is universal healthcare and why does it matter?
Tom Holliday - Children get less

We LOVE it when you leave a review!
If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful
please share your thoughts by leaving a review (Apple is easiest to leave a review) and comment on your favourite episodes.

I tweet as @WhoseShoes and @WildCardWS and am on Instagram as @WildCardWS.

Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.