Polyclinics in England

Polyclinics in England were intended to offer a greater range of services than were offered by current general practitioner (GP) practices and local health centres. In addition to traditional GP services they would offer extended urgent care, healthy living services, community mental health services and social care, whilst being more accessible and less medicalised than hospitals. A variety of models were proposed, ranging from networks of existing clinics to larger premises with several colocated general practitioner (GP) practices, more extensive facilities and additional services provided by allied healthcare professionals.

The incoming health secretary in May 2010 Andrew Lansley put on hold all plans to increase numbers of polyclinics and to relocate GPs to them pending a review of policy under the new coalition government, after a review by management consultants McKinsey revealed "NHS managers had vastly overestimated the ability of polysystems to handle the shift in care from hospitals and revolutionise GP care".

On Wednesday 29 April 2009, the first seven polyclinics in England opened in London, marked by the opening of the Loxford Polyclininc by Lord Darzi. The seven were:

The polyclinic model proposed in London will provide:

The government accepts that the polyclinic model may not be suitable for rural areas but may be popular in the larger conurbations.

Health Centres offering a mix of community-based health care services have existed in England since the early years of the National Health Service (NHS). They have typically provided specialist care such as ophthalmology, podiatry, dentistry, minor injuries nursing, and therefore provided services that fell between that of the GP service and those available at the hospital.

Some primary care trusts in England attempted to bring together even more services into such centres, most notably by co-locating GPs, health laboratories, pharmacies and other services under one roof. The Heart of Hounslow Centre for Health for example has GP services, outpatient care, physiotherapy, dentistry, podiatry, social care outreach, mental health services for children and a gym to help in rehabilitation. All these services take place in a purpose-built facility. However, the centre does not provide urgent care and only has a limited range of diagnostics.

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