Health Support and Projects
PCVS supports healthy communities
The big Health and Wellbeing survey was undertaken in early 2025.
This community-focused initiative aimed to better understand and address the diverse health and wellness needs of our residents. This has been developed by the Peterborough and East and Bretton, Park and Hampton Integrated Neighbourhoods.
The Peterborough Health and Wellbeing Survey was a collaborative effort to gather direct insights from residents about their health, wellness, and quality-of-life concerns. By understanding their needs, we can take meaningful steps toward improving community health resources, programs, and support services across our neighbourhood. You can check out the results in the links below.
Thank you for taking part!
Get involved and become a Community Research Champion
Are you interested in improving and promoting health and care research in your community? Become a Community Research Champion and help to make health and social care research more inclusive and effective.
Health and social care research helps us to find new treatments and to ensure they’re safe and effective, diagnose conditions better and earlier, and prevent illness and look after ourselves.
However, research participation doesn’t always reflect the different groups in our communities, those most affected by a health condition, or how different groups respond to treatments. This is where Community Research Champions can help!
What is a community research champion?
Community Research Champions are members of the public, patients, and carers, who want to make a difference in developing better health care and treatment.
They help spread the word about research in their communities, help health and care staff understand patients’ experience of research, and find out about people’s awareness and views towards health and social care research. This could be through finding out about existing groups, services or places in their community, 1-to-1 conversations, or group workshops. What champions do can be shaped by them and be flexible to their local area.
A Research Champion does not need any prior experience or knowledge about health and social care research. Free training and resources are provided by NIHR to all Community Champions so that they have the knowledge and tools they need for the role.
Community Research Champions in Peterborough
In 2022/2023 17 people from 9 different community organisations were trained as Community Champions. They were recruited from the following groups.
- Bharat Hindu Samaj Peterborough
- Gambian Community
- Chinese Community in Peterborough
- Bengali Sanskrit Club
- Peterborough Nepalese Society
- High Heritage
- St Mark’s Church
- Russian Community in Peterborough
- The Raham Project
Champions participated in a workshop to decide where to focus their learning, deciding that community conversations were the best way forward. They co-produced a set of questions and between them have spoken to over 670 local people, including friends, family, community members, work colleagues and contacts from places of worship and social clubs. Some were one to one conversations, and others were in groups large and small. They supported the design and promotion of a Peterborough launch event for a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) study into respiratory disease, and talked to the local Nepalese community about mental health and links to research.
Become a Community Research Champion
We would love to expand our network of Champions, so if you would be interested in becoming a Community Research Champion then get in touch with James ([email protected]) or complete this form.
Researchers
If you are a researcher and would like to learn about how Community Research Champions can benefit your research please fill out this enquiry form.
Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice Carer Support survey
Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice, working with Caring Together, Peterborough City Council and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Service, are working together to explore and enhance support for people with caring responsibilities. We want to make sure that support is inclusive, respectful, and available to everyone—no matter their background.
If you are a carer—or have been one in the past—we would love to hear from you.
Your experiences, challenges, and ideas can help shape services that better reflect the needs of carers from all backgrounds and walks of life. Whether you care for a family member, friend, or neighbour, your voice matters.
Click the link to take part in this short, confidential survey to hear directly from carers like you.
Locally Promoting Pharmacy First
Did you know you can get certain prescription medications directly from a pharmacy, without a GP appointment?
Using this service frees up GP appointments for patients who need them most and will give people quicker and more convenient access to safe and high quality healthcare. It includes the supply of appropriate medicines for 7 common conditions including earache, sore throat, and urinary tract infections, aiming to address health issues before they get worse.
Community pharmacies offer a more convenient way to access healthcare that includes support with healthy eating, exercise, stopping smoking, monitoring your blood pressure, contraception, flu and covid vaccinations.
For these 7 conditions you can go direct to your local pharmacy or chemist – Acute ear ache, impetigo, infected insect bites, shingles, sinusitis, sore throat, uncomplicated UTI. There are some minimum and maximum age restrictions and it doesn’t include treatment for babies under 1 year old.
Pharmacies have private consultation rooms that can be used for consultations with patients, and pharmacists can see patients for clinical services without always needing an appointment.
After a consultation with the pharmacist, the pharmacy will send a notification to your GP on the same day or on the following working day.
For posters in other languages please select the link.