The problem
In the rush to reform NHS services and bring care closer to communities, one of the most common, and costly, challenges to overcome is the assumption that by simply co-locating health and care teams integrated, effective neighbourhood healthcare will automatically happen.
For many organisations, co-location may feel like the obvious solution to improving cross-provider collaboration. The logic is that placing multiple teams in one physical location will improve the efficiency of teams working together to deliver good neighbourhood healthcare.
While there is evidence that co-location can improve collaboration and putting services under one roof may bring some benefits to residents, particularly bringing care closer to home. However, the efficiencies that can be gained are severely limited and the scope of neighbourhood healthcare as a whole is too large to simply rely on co-location.
Data sharing would remain bottlenecked by the limitations of existing technology. In fact, doing so risks creating new, additional siloes in the health and care sector, beyond those that are already well understood to exist within the NHS.
Digital collaboration is key
The solution is to embrace the benefits that a digital-first, asynchronous approach to collaboration can bring.
With an informed resident view, teams can work together to further health and care delivery regardless of location. Crucial data and imaging can be shared instantly with those who have a clinical need to see it, an audit trail can be established to ensure that the care delivered is suitable, and that accountability can be fully established.
In our white paper Neighbourhood health now: the digital roadmap for delivering neighbourhood services today, we set out how co-location without digital connectivity is just geography. Teams may share a building, but if they’re still working in siloed systems, using different records, and relying on outdated communication methods, the resident experience remains fragmented.
This is especially problematic in rural or underserved areas, where co-location may not even be feasible. A model that depends on physical presence alone risks reinforcing existing inequalities and inefficiencies.
The solution: Digital-first integration
True neighbourhood healthcare requires more than shared space. It demands shared information, shared accountability, and shared decision-making. That means:
- A single, informed resident view accessible across all provider settings.
- Interoperable systems that allow real-time collaboration.
- Clear governance structures to ensure data is used securely and appropriately.
- Cultural change, not just technological change, to support new ways of working.
Feedback Medical recently partnered with PPL, a leading healthcare consultancy, alongside Optum UK as the technology providers, to undertake a second simulation of neighbourhood healthcare at the NHS Providers conference in Manchester. The first simulation took place in London in June 2025 and, as noted in PPL’s learnings report on this simulation:
“Information and data were critical to unlocking change. A shared collaboration platform accessible across neighbourhood teams was invaluable.”
There is a risk that in promoting simple co-location as a solution to delivering neighbourhood healthcare, the NHS risks creating, in effect, new hospital-like entities which will suffer from the same ineffective collaboration seen in secondary care settings now.
To avoid the trap of co-location siloes, instead the NHS should:
- Start with digital infrastructure: Ensure teams can collaborate regardless of location.
- Support cultural change: Invest in training and change management to help teams adopt new ways of working.
- Plan for scalability: Build a model that works in both urban and rural settings.
This would also allow for the swift implementation of a new model of neighbourhood healthcare, which can commence supporting residents now, not just in ten years.
To find out more information on how to deliver neighbourhood healthcare, read our whitepaper Neighbourhood health now: the digital roadmap for delivering neighbourhood services today.