London Borough of Redbridge: How a healthy bus is taking health checks and advice out into communities

The London Borough of Redbridge has commissioned a healthy bus service to offer health checks and other services in community locations. The council’s public health team partnered with a variety or local providers including GP surgeries, smoking cessation and sexual health services to run mobile clinics in areas such as high streets, parks, community and faith sites and outside schools. The project built on an approach deployed during the pandemic to deliver Covid vaccinations.

 “We’ve taken it everywhere – to parks and high streets and outside faith centres and schools. The aim has been to deliver preventative interventions and health services in communities where health inequalities exist” –James Bachmann, Head of Public Health and Wellbeing

The concept of the Healthy Redbridge Bus was originally adopted by Redbridge Council during the pandemic to promote Covid vaccination and deliver the jabs. The converted double-decker bus proved so valuable at engaging underserved communities that when the council was looking at how to tackle health inequalities the mobile clinic model was returned to.

“The bus was decommissioned once activities returned to normal after the pandemic so we leased a new one – a smaller converted van this time as we felt it would be easier to manoeuvre about and be able to visit more locations more easily,” said Head of Public Health and Wellbeing James Bachmann.

“It has a small clinical area inside and comes with retractable gazebo so we can set up a table and display outside. We’ve taken it everywhere – to parks and high streets and outside faith centres and schools. The aim has been to deliver preventative interventions and health services in communities where health inequalities exist.”

To achieve this the public health team has worked with a range of partners. These have included local GP surgeries who have offered health checks, such as blood glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure readings and general health advice and promoted cancer screening. The commissioned sexual health, substance misuse and smoking cessation providers have also run clinics, while vaccinations have been offered, as well as an information session on MMR jabs.

“We provide the logistical support, supplying drivers and dealing with things like parking and licencing restrictions and leave it to the providers to provide the health intervention. In fact, having a converted van has proved extremely useful as you only need a standard driving licence so if we are short of fleet drivers we can use one of the public health team are able to drive it when needed.

“Where you locate the healthy bus is, of course, crucial to the success of the event. If you are providing a general health service or health check you want to go an area with high footfall such as the high street. But if you are doing something specific like a vaccination or substance misuse offer you have to go where your target population is going to be.”

Those involved in the mobile service are full of praise. One practice manager said: “The bus has been a great help especially with surgeries struggling with consulting space. We had very good support from public health in organising and making the experience seamless for patients. It was a great experience."

The healthy bus service was launched in Autumn 2023 and in the first year 65 events were held, engaging more than 1,700 residents. Feedback has been incredibly positive. One said: “Getting my health check on the bus was so much easier than trying to get one from my GP.” And another added: “I feel comfortable attending the clinic because it’s at my local mosque.”

The success of the scheme has meant the project has got funding in place until March 2026 and from April 2025 a lead provider will be in place with local urgent care provider, the Partnership of East London Cooperatives (PELC), running the mobile clinics.

Mr Bachmann said this will help with the evolution of the service. “PELC has the clinical expertise, but more than that they will be able to address one of the small weaknesses we had in that they have better access to NHS systems. Before we could only let GP and other services know we had seen a patient or provided a service, but PELC will be able to add that to the records and check on patient progress more effectively.

“We still plan to partner with other providers. For example, our sexual health provider could send a member of their staff out with the PELC team if that was appropriate. We have also purchased the van in full now, rather than just leasing. We want to make this service sustainable in the long-term.”

Promoting the bus is key. When the project started, the bus was not branded but since then it has been emblazoned with the names of key partners and the Healthy Redbridge Bus banner, said Delivery Manager Nabilah Shahid.

“That made a lot of difference. When the bus arrives and people see the branding, they naturally become curious and we tend to get good footfall from that.

“But we also do a lot of comms too. We have done that via the council website, printed leaflets and pushed it through social media channels as well as working with our partners by sharing assets with the providers and our community and voluntary sector partners.

“It is also important to get your organisation right to make it as smooth as possible. People don’t like to wait too long.

“When we first started, we had to do separate blood glucose and cholesterol checks – and each took seven minutes for a result to be returned. We purchased a new machine that could do both checks at the same time and only took three minutes for the results– that helped us a lot.

“We get really good engagement with the residents we want to work with – it is helping take vital services out into communities that most need it.”