Tessa Jowell, the late and much-loved former MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, was uniquely well-placed to understand the health needs of her constituents.
As well as being a former health minister, she had been a psychiatric social worker before her parliamentary career. Sadly, she passed away in May 2018.
But two years later, in May 2020, twenty years after she first began lobbying for an integrated community health facility, the Tessa Jowell Health Centre was opened.
South Southwark patients “cut off” from the Tessa Jowell Health Centre
With its beautiful building and wide range of services, from mental health provision to children’s community health, it commemorates the tireless public servant fittingly.
Given it’s such an important facility, it’s understandably frustrating that people living in places like West Dulwich, Gypsy Hill and Crystal Palace have been led to believe they can’t use it.
It’s been over two years since the centre first opened. Admittedly, a lot of this has been during the pandemic, but people shouldn’t still be unsure what services they are entitled to.
At a council meeting last week, several people were told that, because they’re registered with Lambeth GPs, they can’t access the centre, despite living a stone’s throw away.
There is also almost zero information available to patients online that outlines exactly which Tessa Jowell Centre services are available to whom.
As we discuss in this week’s paper, it’s a deeply turbulent time for the NHS. As it contends with staffing shortages and a seemingly endless waiting list, one can see how the intricacies of local healthcare might get overlooked.
Historic health planning has also left the south of Southwark chronically underserved with GPs. As a result, its residents are overly-reliant on out-of-borough facilities.
We must also consider that the Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group recently became the South East London Integrated Care Board (ICB), causing a maelstrom of bureaucratic confusion.
But ultimately, these excuses only go so far.
With Londoners facing extraordinarily long waits for treatment, patients must have a proper understanding of what services they have access to.
The people of Gypsy Hill and West Dulwich urgently need an audience with the ICB, so they can outline their concerns.
If it turns out that the Tessa Jowell Centre is indeed reserved for people registered with Southwark GPs, a proper cross-border strategy for south Southwark will be needed.
After all, it would be ridiculous if people were made to suffer drastic health inequalities just because of arbitrary constituency boundaries.