Communities in Mid Bedfordshire have been let down by development that has outstripped basic infrastructure, like access to healthcare. Having secured a new GP Surgery for Wixams, I will continue to campaign to improve access to healthcare in Mid Bedfordshire.
That means ensuring that housing developments are always accompanied by new infrastructure, including healthcare, by campaigning to reform infrastructure funding so that developers have to pay upfront for infrastructure.
The Government’s proposals for Neighbourhood Health Centres risk leaving Mid Bedfordshire’s rural areas behind. I am campaigning for at least one of those Neighbourhood Health Centres to be in the Flitwick / Ampthill area.
Local healthcare decisions need to be made locally and in a way that is accountable to local residents. The Government have merged Bedfordshire’s healthcare governing body into an enormous, distant organisation covering Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Hertfordshire. I will work to ensure that local people’s voices are heard on healthcare decisions.
We all rely on high quality, conveniently located hospitals. I will work to ensure the promised new specialist Cancer Hospital in Cambridge and the new hospital in Milton Keynes are delivered on time. I will also continue to campaign for the new Children’s Hospital in Cambridge and to tackle the maintenance backlogs at Bedford Hospital and Luton & Dunstable Hospital.
