The Junction 24 Truckstop on the M5 hosts Health Hubs regularly throughout the month for workers who find it difficult to access primary health care due to location or working hours.  

Truckstop Health Hub started in February 2021, held in the Derek Mead Health Room (DMHR). Thanks to sponsorship from Wincanton and the provision of two nurses and a receptionist by the local NHS Trust, Junction 24 has been hosting a driver health drop-in centre every third Thursday of the month between 5pm and 8.30pm. 

The Health Hub is the brainchild of director Katherine Hawke who asked the NHS if a Truckstop Health Hub could be trialled. Katherine says she was concerned that hard-working truck drivers who kept the country running during Covid were not being looked after by their industry.  

Katherine and her brother originally set up a Saturday Health Hub for farmers and countryside workers in memory of their father, Junction 24's original owner, who had built the adjacent Sedgemoor Auction Centre as an agricultural trading centre. 

Katherine says: "Truck drivers, like farmers, work long hours and find accessing health care very difficult. As Junction 24 provides evening parking for truck drivers, we increasingly noticed a need to provide a readily accessible health care service for them."  

She says the Hub has been very well received by drivers. The nurses usually see at least five drivers per session, conducting blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol tests, and discussing lifestyle or driver concerns.  

The nurses can then refer results to the driver's GP or for specialist help, including for smoking cessation, financial worries or mental health concerns. 

"More important even than the tests is that the nurses are someone for these men to talk to," she says. "It is also an environment where farmers and truckers alike can come in their work clothes (or wellies) and feel welcome and at home." 

This is a fantastic initiative, offering a safety net for both physical and mental health and signposting relevant continuing care for drivers.  

Ideally this idea could be replicated at major junctions around the country to make such provision available to the greatest number of drivers regardless of route.