From co-design to clinical practice: how Lewisham’s NHS lifestyle medicine service is improving health outcomes for people with long-term conditions

In Lewisham, south London, an NHS Lifestyle Medicine Service is demonstrating the potential of personalised, community-designed care.  

Developed by Dr Camille Hirons in partnership with local residents, patients and healthcare professionals, the service provides 12 weeks of support from health and wellbeing coaches, helping people make changes to their diet, physical activity, sleep and other lifestyle behaviours.

Initially established in North Lewisham to address health inequalities and barriers to care, the service has expanded across all seven of the borough’s primary care networks.

New evaluation findings presented by Hirons #NLMC 2026 – the Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine Conference organised by Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, show that:

🍏 24% of 93 participants with type 2 diabetes reached the non-diabetic HbA1c range.
🍏 57% of 30 participants with hypertension had systolic blood pressure in the normal range.

Speaking to us at the Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine Conference, Dr Camille Hirons, GP and vice-president of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine said:

“The clinical results matter, but the experience of one patient shows what they can mean in someone’s life. One of our patients was a 72-year-old asylum seeker living with type 2 diabetes, hearing difficulties and unstable housing.

Finding somewhere secure to live was understandably his main concern. Health coach Nana Ocran worked closely with him, supported by an interpreter and his wife, to introduce practical lifestyle changes. These included using a pictorial food diary, a glucose sensor, culturally relevant dietary advice, and walking for 10 minutes after each meal.

His HbA1c fell from 95 to 59 mmol/mol. His wife’s HbA1c also fell, from 44 to 40 mmol/mol, as the household made dietary changes together. We didn’t expect this ripple effect.”

Camille Hirons
GP and vice-president of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine

➡️ Read the full Q&A with Camille Hirons here >> 

Early findings from the service were published as an abstract in Lifestyle Medicine Advances, co-owned by the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine and BMJ Group.

Does this project resonate with your own work? Lifestyle Medicine Advances welcomes submissions that share research, evidence and practical insights to advance lifestyle medicine and improve patient care.