A new partnership has been announced to help improve the health and wellbeing of patients attending a clinic in Dorchester.

Active Dorset and Dorset County Hospital have partnered together to create a new 'lifestyle service' at South Walks House in Charles Street.

The building is the former home of Dorset Council which the NHS took over, running it as an outpatients clinic for DCH.

The new Outpatient Lifestyle Service will look to work across a number of departments in addition to orthopaedic clinics.

READ: New Outpatient Assessment Centre opens in Dorchester

Chloe Smith, Active Dorset's health & physical activity manager said: "We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with Dorset County Hospital through embedding prevention into outpatient services.

"By providing a health and wellbeing service to patients who are receiving clinical care, patients will be able to gain better access to services, supporting their non-clinical needs in order to improve their health and wellbeing, whilst also improving clinical optimisation."

Since the opening of the permanent multi-million pound Outpatient Assessment Centre in February 2024, LiveWell Dorset has been an integral part of delivering a new model of care for patients at the clinic.

Its team has provided support for a range of orthopaedic clinics by carrying out lifestyle assessments with patients and delivering brief interventions.

The aim of the service was to encourage patients to identify lifestyle changes, engage in further support and ultimately improve health outcomes.

As Public Health Dorset's free behaviour change service, LiveWell has worked alongside clinicians, helping patients with on-the-spot healthy lifestyle advice as well as looping them into the LiveWell service for ongoing support for weight management, quitting smoking, drinking less alcohol and increasing physical activity.

Four new colleagues make up the new lifestyle service team, fronted by  manager Courtney Lowman.

The idea is to develop a 'holistic signposting approach' that will be personalised to patient needs.

It will develop working relationships with services such as Help and Care, social prescribing services, Access Wellbeing, LiveWell Dorset, Steps to Wellbeing and others.

This new arrangement will ensure orthopaedic clinics and clinicians can continue to access the additional holistic benefits of a lifestyle support service like whilst ensuring that further departments can benefit from work with the new service.