The Wallington Health and Wellbeing Day in October, organised by the Wallington Community Wellbeing charity, takes place twice a year in the Trinity Church Centre, Wallington and is a well-established, popular part of the local social calendar.
On the day health partners in Sutton came together to provide a range of health information and advice. Health and wellbeing has always been an important part of this event, but this time the teams’ presence was much improved by the new “Hub”. This area, set back from the busy main hall, meant residents were able to speak to health professionals in a more confidential way. The large number of people who visited the health stalls and the positive feedback received after the event highlighted how popular, and useful, it had been for residents.
In the Hub, a community pharmacist, alongside Sutton Long Term Condition Lead, Dr Navdeep Alg, provided health checks and advice on medication, a representative from the Sutton lung health check team gave advice on the lung health checks programme and the health improvement specialist from the South West London Bowel Screening Programme was there to talk about signs and symptoms, screening and how to do the bowel cancer screening test.
Macmillan Cancer Information and Support offered advice on cancer awareness and prevention and health coaches from Sutton’s Primary Care Networks talked to local residents about how to have healthier lifestyles.
Christine Lindsay, Chair of the Wallington Wellbeing Charity, explained how the health professionals’ presence made a real difference at the event. “Two residents were found to have very high blood pressure. They have now seen their GPs and are receiving treatment – for conditions which might otherwise have gone undiagnosed.”
“A number of people have also fed back to me that after their conversations with the cancer screening and information teams they have made appointments with their GPs to discuss their concerns rather than ignoring symptoms and hoping that that they were nothing.
We were really pleased with how successful the “Hub” was.”
Christine Lindsay
Nadine Wyatt, Senior Engagement Lead for Sutton Borough Team, said: “We have been attending the Wallington Wellbeing day regularly over the past few years but this year, from our perspective, the event exceeded all our expectations.
“We met and talked to more people than ever before, had queues of people waiting patiently for their health checks and were able to offer advice and signpost many residents to other services in Sutton. We have now been invited to visit the local fire service and talk to the firefighters about cancer awareness and the importance of early diagnosis.”
It was a fabulous day and we are looking forward to attending the next one!”
Nadine Wyatt