Richard holds debate on access to GPs and primary care for patients in North East Bedfordshire

On Tuesday, Richard held a Westminster Hall Debate on access to GPs and primary care in North East Bedfordshire, highlighting the issues and concerns raised by so many of his constituents in recent months.

Richard Fuller MP said:

I have visited almost all GP practices in my constituency over the past six months and have listened to GPs, nurses, practice managers, receptionists and call handlers. These discussions reinforced what most of us already knew, that primary care in North East Bedfordshire is under severe strain.

As of April 2021 data, in terms of patient to GP ratio, Bedford, Luton & Milton Keynes (BLMK) ranked 8th highest out of 106 Clinical Commissioning Groups at 2,169 patients per GP against a national average of 1,772. From 2014 to 2022 the list size for GPs in North East Bedfordshire grew 13% compared with 8% nationally. For the same period, 2014 to 2022, the total headcount of qualified GPs grew 2.1% nationally but fell 2.2% in North East Bedfordshire. Over that 8 year period the number of GP Partners fell by over a quarter.

Consequently there are now 2,482 patients per GP, up 28% since 2014, and 3,792 patients per GP Partner, up 48% since 2014.

Richard added:

North East Bedfordshire is already near to the top of ratios and population growth is 3 times the national average. I have asked the Department for Health to look at NE Beds as a test case for Infrastructure First – identifying lessons learned from the inability of the NHS to keep pace – in personnel, processes and facilities – and mapping out what could have been done and what could now be done better.

I called on the Minister (Maria Caulfield), to accelerate action across the constituency, in several cases with plans that are already in place, in order to alleviate these problems that are causing such heartache to so many.

Richard also thanked GPs and their teams in his constituency for the work they had been doing.

The full thirty minute debate can be watched here. A full transcript of the debate can be found by following this link to Hansard and a new clip from BBC Look East can be watched here.