I’m very grateful to the 2,838 residents who completed my Health Services Survey – it’s given me really good data that I can use in my campaign to get us the health services we need.
It was very disappointing, if not surprising, to find that 77% of people who responded to the survey had had difficulty accessing a GP appointment within the last year, while 44% had struggled to get a dentist appointment in the last year – significantly lower than for GPs but still too high. Only 1 in 10 people said they had not had difficulty accessing health services.
An incredibly high 97% of people felt we do not have enough GPs for the number of local residents we have and 98% felt we do have enough dentists. I agree. While there were some other health services that some said they would like to see more of – like mental health and physio services – far and away the 2 things people want to see more of are GPs and dentists.
I secured a debate in parliament last week to raise these issues with the minister responsible for GPs, which you can watch on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/davidjohnston4wantage/). I explained the situation is most acute in Didcot, where I live, and where Great Western Park still awaits the GP surgery promised 8 years ago, while Valley Park, another large estate, is on its way. Those 2 estates alone add 18,000 people to the area, enough to more than a fill a GP surgery by themselves.
As I’ve said before, although the local Lib Dems just blame the government for too many houses relative to the infrastructure we have, the number of new houses registered in this constituency in 2022 was actually 67% higher than it was in 2019, the year the Lib Dems took charge of South and Vale and therefore housing and planning decisions.
The Government is training more doctors – there are now 2,200 more than in 2019. Its providing investment to enable 50 million more GP appointments by 2024. Pharmacies will be permitted to give out certain medication without you needing to see a doctor, and the ‘8am rush’ of phone calls will be tackled by ensuring when people call the surgery they are given either an appointment or a referral to an appropriate service so they don’t have to call back – which 1 constituent who wrote to me said they’d done 117 times.
But we need a better accountability mechanism to ensure that local council and health leaders plan appropriately for increased populations and deliver the infrastructure improvements promised with new developments. My next step is meeting with the minister to discuss how this can be made to happen.
