Access to Primary Healthcare

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

We know that primary care has been struggling—struggling to meet targets, keep up with demand and help the population remain healthy. Those difficulties are particularly acute in rural areas such as Glastonbury and Somerton, where primary care faces specific issues such as recruitment, retention, and access to services. GPs serve a crucial and multifaceted role in healthcare, but they are all too often inaccessible in rural areas. Last year in Somerset, 21% of GP appointments took more than two weeks from booking to appointment—higher than the average wait in England —and 7% of appointments took well over a month.

GPs play a crucial role in serving people’s mental health, as well as their physical health. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee’s report on rural mental health concluded that NHS mental health services are not fairly accessible for rural communities. A one-size-fits-all approach does not fit everyone; appropriate services should be developed to serve rural communities. To help mend the mess left by the Conservatives, the Lib Dems want to give everyone the right to see a GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if urgent, with 8,000 more GPs to deliver on that commitment. Rural communities also suffer from poor access to public transport, which makes it more difficult to access services, and poor rural broadband, which makes it hard to access online services. It is clear that cross-departmental work is needed to address the challenges rural people face in accessing mental health support. Those hurdles must be factored into the national strategies that are focused on addressing mental health.

We must look at how pharmacists can ease the pressure on GP services, but they too need urgent support. Between April 2015 and June 2024, there was a net loss of 1,200 community pharmacies—1,402 closures and only 179 openings. The rate of pharmacy closures in Glastonbury and Somerton is, shockingly, near double the national average. Community pharmacies provide an essential high-street service in rural market towns, but many have now simply gone.

The Liberal Democrats believe that we need a clearer, more sustainable long-term funding model for pharmacies, and we must build on the Pharmacy First approach to give patients more accessible routine services and ease the pressure on our GPs.

The new Government have spoken out about our crumbling public services, but now is the time to act. My constituents cannot wait.