One of the things I have campaigned on most since being elected 3 years ago is the lack of health services – particularly GP surgeries – relative to the number of people we have in the constituency.
It’s something I’ve spoken about in 19 different debates in Parliament and held numerous meetings with the local councils, local health leaders, ministers and local people about. I’ve also teamed up with other Conservative MPs who have similar issues in their areas to campaign together with them.
A few days ago, I launched my constituency-wide Health Services Survey. This is a chance for everyone who lives locally to have their say about their experience of health services, what they think they need more of and where. It’s 8 questions on my website and should take only about 5 minutes, no more than 10. It will close on the 17th April and the link to complete it is below.
It’s really important that as many people complete the survey as possible as the more who do so the more powerful the message to the councils, local health leaders and parliament. It doesn’t matter who you vote for (there are no questions about that) or which GP practice you’re registered to (there are no questions about that either), this is simply to get a really good, constituency-wide message about what we need and where.
While some of the questions are about GPs, there are also questions about dentists and various other health services.
This constituency sees some of the highest house-building rates in their country. Relative to size, South Oxfordshire and the Vale are both in the top 10 districts for housebuilding. While some might have you believe this housebuilding is just the responsibility of the Government, the Liberal Democrats have been in charge of both district councils for the last 4 years and district councils are the planning authorities. The number of new houses registered here in 2022 was 67% higher than in 2019.
Whatever the arguments about the housebuilding, our health services have not been keeping up with the population growth we’ve seen for some time, which is why we have seen some GP surgeries temporarily close their books to new patients.
This should not be a party-political issue as responsibility for health services is shared. It’s the Government’s job to train more doctors (there are 1900 more since 2019 and 4,000 began training in 2021, but we need more still). But local councils and local health leaders are responsible for planning and agreeing infrastructure improvements like new GP surgeries when they agree to new houses, and if they’re then not delivered they can’t just blame the Government.
You can complete my survey here: https://www.david-johnston.org.uk/health
