NHS sleep clinics pilot a community-first model
Early data suggests that group-based cognitive behavioural therapy works as well as one-to-one care.
An NHS pilot in three regions is testing a community-first model for chronic insomnia, replacing one-to-one consultations with structured group-based cognitive behavioural therapy delivered over six weeks.
Early data from the first cohorts suggests outcomes comparable to individual care, at roughly a third of the cost — a ratio that, if it holds, would make the model attractive across the wider commissioning landscape.
Patients in the pilot describe the group setting as unexpectedly useful. Insomnia, several reported, is a condition that feels intensely personal until you sit in a room with seven other people experiencing exactly the same nights.
Clinicians caution against premature scaling. The pilot has been carefully run, with experienced facilitators and a defined patient cohort; a national rollout would face workforce constraints the pilot did not have to confront.
Even so, the early results have already prompted two further trusts to design their own variants. The model, in other words, is spreading on its merits before the formal evaluation is complete.
