The suggestion by Mr Akker and his associates (Letters 3 January) that Mersea councillors only became concerned about Mersea surgery after their November petition is absurd.
Both Sir Bernard Jenkin MP and Mersea councillors – including those who were councillors long before I was elected last May - have been seeking to resolve this issue for many years. In October I and other Mersea councillors on Colchester and Essex County Councils wrote to the Health Secretary.
The timing of that letter – which was entirely non-party political - was the day after the new government’s first budget, when they had announced plans for 40,000 new appointments. We wrote to say that whilst we welcomed this, we needed to draw his attention to the fact that on Mersea people couldn’t even register with a GP. This is because there is only one surgery and over the summer it had stopped taking on new patients due to the increase it had already experienced as a result of new housing developments on the island.
We therefore asked Mr Streeting both to take urgent action to ensure Mersea residents can access a GP and to urgently meet with Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister who had just imposed large compulsory house building targets on Colchester – asking her to exempt areas currently without GP access from them.
Dr Martin Parsons
Colchester City Councillor for Mersea and Pyefleet
Both Sir Bernard Jenkin MP and Mersea councillors – including those who were councillors long before I was elected last May - have been seeking to resolve this issue for many years. In October I and other Mersea councillors on Colchester and Essex County Councils wrote to the Health Secretary.
The timing of that letter – which was entirely non-party political - was the day after the new government’s first budget, when they had announced plans for 40,000 new appointments. We wrote to say that whilst we welcomed this, we needed to draw his attention to the fact that on Mersea people couldn’t even register with a GP. This is because there is only one surgery and over the summer it had stopped taking on new patients due to the increase it had already experienced as a result of new housing developments on the island.
We therefore asked Mr Streeting both to take urgent action to ensure Mersea residents can access a GP and to urgently meet with Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister who had just imposed large compulsory house building targets on Colchester – asking her to exempt areas currently without GP access from them.
Dr Martin Parsons
Colchester City Councillor for Mersea and Pyefleet
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