No doctors, no development: Lib Dem MP Anna Sabine, calls for a GP Guarantee on all new developments, as average surgery in Somerset serves 4324 extra homes since 2015
No doctors, no development: Lib Dem MP Anna Sabine, calls for a GP Guarantee on all new developments, as average surgery in Somerset serves 4324 extra homes since 2015
- The Liberal Democrats have unveiled a new plan to ensure all developments come with new or expanded GP surgeries in Frome and East Somerset
- The call comes as shocking analysis reveals that GP surgeries in Somerset serve an extra 4324 homes each since 2015, a 30.01% increase, whilst those in Bath and North East Somerset have increased by a huge 34.7%
Liberal Democrat MP for Frome and East Somerset, Anna Sabine is launching a campaign to guarantee GP investment on new developments. It comes as Lib Dem analysis shows that an eyewatering 1300 surgeries have closed in a decade (between 2015 and 2025) across the country.
In Frome and East Somerset, which is already seeing significant changes to the medical offerings, with the closure of beds at Frome Community Hospital, declining GP access is a huge worry.
“In the Somer Valley and in Frome, developments continue to be announced, which whilst absolutely necessary to meet housing pressures in our area, must bring it with them the proper infrastructure to support our growing communities, not overwhelm existing providers with an impossible ask” says Anna Sabine MP.
Anna, with her Lib Dem colleagues, wants new or expanded GP surgeries to be up and running in areas of new development as soon as the first homes are sold. This is part of their proposed infrastructure first approach to development and supports their campaign to rescue General Practice and ensure everyone can get an appointment within 7 days or 24 hours if urgent.
Developers in Frome and East Somerset would be required to not only fund new facilities but to guarantee the GP surgery contract (or the cost of salaried GPs) while new residents are still moving in. This would ensure new residents don’t have to turn to over-stretched existing GPs.
Delivery of health services has been found to be integral for public trust, with recent LSE research finding that where GP provision has declined and more surgeries have closed, support for the extreme right has risen.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat MP Anna Sabine said:
“We are seeing cuts across the board and in areas like Frome and East Somerset, which sits on the edge of county boundaries, there is a real risk of our residents slipping through the cracks. If housing developments are being approved, that must come with proper and sustainable infrastructure. It is simply not acceptable that existing residents, nor new people to the area, are left without proper access to healthcare and other local services that they desperately need.
Time and again we are seeing housing developers make promises that are then not delivered. Councils and local communities should be given the powers to hold developers to account and demand the services our residents so badly need.”
Anna has recently been involved in challenging changes around the Frome Community Hospital bed closures and has been championing the need for healthcare provisions in the Somer Valley as part of the new local plan.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Data can be found here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KfqC6PfAq1o7MkT12cwbYd7Dq5di82BH/edit?gid=2039040397#gid=2039040397