The County Standard is absolutely right – we do have a crisis on Mersea, with some people unable to register with a GP. This is due to the island’s only surgery stating they do not feel they can safely take on any new patients due to the increase in patients already resulting from recent housing developments on the island.
However, there is a lot of hard work which has been going on behind the scenes to try to find a solution to this. Sir Bernard Jenkin MP has long been in discussions with the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board who are responsible for local primary health care, to try to get then to resolve this, as well as meeting with the GPs themselves.
While in October, as local councillors we wrote to the Heath Secretary, Wes Streeting explaining the situation on Mersea and asking him both to urgently address the issue and also to meet with Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary asking her to exempt areas without GP access from the government’s new house building targets. Whilst we have yet to receive a reply, Sir Bernard Jenkin MP is seeking to ensure we get one!
The 1944 NHS White Paper produced by Churchill’s wartime government, which became the blueprint for the creation of the NHS, set out a basic principle of everyone having free access to GPs at the point of need. That is now no longer available to everyone on Mersea. That is why, as Mersea councillors we have written to the Health Secretary, asking him to intervene.
Councillor Robert Davidson
Councillor Martin Parsons
Councillor Carl Powling
County Councillor John Jowers
However, there is a lot of hard work which has been going on behind the scenes to try to find a solution to this. Sir Bernard Jenkin MP has long been in discussions with the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board who are responsible for local primary health care, to try to get then to resolve this, as well as meeting with the GPs themselves.
While in October, as local councillors we wrote to the Heath Secretary, Wes Streeting explaining the situation on Mersea and asking him both to urgently address the issue and also to meet with Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary asking her to exempt areas without GP access from the government’s new house building targets. Whilst we have yet to receive a reply, Sir Bernard Jenkin MP is seeking to ensure we get one!
The 1944 NHS White Paper produced by Churchill’s wartime government, which became the blueprint for the creation of the NHS, set out a basic principle of everyone having free access to GPs at the point of need. That is now no longer available to everyone on Mersea. That is why, as Mersea councillors we have written to the Health Secretary, asking him to intervene.
Councillor Robert Davidson
Councillor Martin Parsons
Councillor Carl Powling
County Councillor John Jowers
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