Dr Tabassum Siddiqui is a GP at Moat House Surgery in Merstham and our GP Lead for Growing Health Together in the Reigate and Merstham area.
Dr Siddiqui is working with a wide range of citizens and local partners to support the establishment of new health-creating initiatives that respond to locally-identified need, and to support and promote existing projects that are supporting health and wellbeing in the area.
A small selection of these projects may be found below. For more information, please follow the links provided or email info@growinghealthtogether.org
The Merstham Breastfeeding Project is developing well under the leadership of Dr Tabassum Siddiqui and Dr Uzma Aziz, with support from Lauren Turner of Surrey Heartlands and other partners. Uptake among pregnant women from minority ethnic groups, at whom this initiative is aimed, has increased substantially and there is a low rate of drop-out from the programme. This work was initiated following data from SaSH showing substantially poorer perinatal maternal health outcomes in South Asian women living in Merstham and Redhill.
One of the priorities for Growing Health Together is health equity. Growing Health Together were pleased to work with the Surrey Hills AONB and Gatton Trust, and connect them with the Merstham Mix cafe, social prescribers and the local GP practice, to help those living in Merstham who have less access to green spaces, to take up volunteering opportunities at Gatton Park. More details about the Gatton Park Volunteer scheme are available here.
Image courtesy of Gatton Park.
Collaborating with a number of individuals from Surrey County Council (SCC) and Moat House Surgery Health and Wellbeing champions are being trained to provide this service. Information events were held in the community and 12 potential volunteers signed up with a range of different interests.
Tabassum has been working alongside partners including Surrey Heartlands’ Health and Wellbeing board and Active Surrey to support improved facilities for Merstham Recreation ground, including looking at opportunities to open a schools facilities fund for local schools like Merstham Park and Furzefield.
We are pleased to support the fantastic community work taking place at the Merstham Community Hub. Dr Siddiqui, the GP lead for Merstham, has assisted a diabetes screening programme for at risk populations in the Merstham Hub and developed links with Active Surrey, to support adoption of physically active lifestyles. We are also proud to have helped support the new mother and toddler group, Hublets, to get established, run by local parent volunteers with the support of Alice Oswell from Reigate & Banstead Borough Council.
A listening event took place on Nailsworth Crescent Estate in Merstham, which is identified as an area of health inequity, in the highest priority area for health inequalities across Surrey Heartlands.
This was well attended with local residents, Raven Housing Trust, Surrey County Council, Reigate and Banstead Borough Council and many other organisations. Community members identified housing improvements as one of the greatest opportunities for improving their health and wellbeing, together with improving their communal garden and support for young families.
We were also pleased to provide seed funding to help get a mother and toddler group off the ground, following the listening event, while the other priorities are being addressed in parallel.
