Healthcare staff could go door-to-door within communities to tackle sickness, ill-health worklessness and absence from work, as part of the government’s plans to create a ‘neighbourhood health service’, it has been reported.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, health secretary Wes Streeting said early versions of the scheme had shown “really encouraging signs” in terms of cutting the numbers of what he termed “frequent flyers” – or people using the NHS frequently – clogging up A&E departments.

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He told the newspaper: “I’m actually really interested in the community health worker model and the impact it’s having.

“We’re seeing some really encouraging signs about what can happen if you’ve got the right care in the right place at the right time, especially among communities and families, where they’re likely to become what I call ‘the frequent flyers of the NHS’,” Streeting added.

The paper argued the initiative is set to be rolled out in 25 parts of England, and could form part of a new NHS 10-year plan set to be unveiled in June.

The idea, which to an extent mimics the traditional (and now largely disappeared) notion of GPs doing home visits, would see community health workers being allocated a community area of around 120 homes, typically paying monthly visits to see if help is needed.

Results from the first pilot scheme in Westminster suggest a dramatic impact, with a 10% drop in hospital admissions over a year, including a 7% fall in those arriving at A&E, the paper reported.

Rolling the scheme out to the most deprived 10% to 20% of the country could cost around £300m, but could help to relieve the burden on both secondary and primary care.

The idea is the brainchild of Dr Matthew Harriss, clinical reader in public health at Imperial College, London, who saw a similar model in action in Brazil when working there as a GP from 1999 to 2003.

There, the programme was credited with cutting deaths from common heart conditions by more than a third, the paper reported.

“It’s knocking on doors, and you might be forgiven for thinking it’s interference. But it’s actually giving control back to the resident,” he told the newspaper.

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