Blake Stephenson, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, has written to Health Minister Karin Smyth to push to finally deliver a GP surgery for Wixams, as well as to raise a number of other local healthcare issues.
Local MP Blake is continuing to support the campaign to get a surgery built in Wixams and recently spoke in a Westminster Hall debate on healthcare to highlight this with the Minister. He then followed up his speech with a letter to Minister Smyth.
In the letter he also raised the importance of ensuring infrastructure is always delivered alongside new housing developments, improving NHS facilities at Bedfordshire hospitals and tackling rural health inequalities faced by far too many people across Mid Bedfordshire.
Responding to Blake's letter, Minister Smyth wrote: "It is the responsibility of Bedfordshire, Luton, and Milton Keynes integrated care board to allocate the NHS budget for its area according to local needs, including prioritising capital investment for new health facilities. Any future national capital programmes for NHS organisations seeking new primary care infrastructure will be considered as part of the forthcoming Spending Review. While the Government is committed to shifting healthcare away from the acute estate and closer to the home.
"The Department knows that NHS trusts need support to implement digitisation and address unacceptable levels of backlog maintenance. The Frontline Digitisation programme is working to improve the digital maturity of all providers so that they have adequate enabling hardware, robust connectivity, electronic patient record systems and other core capabilities in place. National support is in place for trusts to procure and implement Electronic Patient Records. The Government recognises the health inequalities faced by rural communities in England, particularly around access to healthcare services. In response, the Department is working closely with NHS England, and regional Directors of Public Health to develop approaches that address these inequalities. In line with the Government’s Health Mission, the goal is to create a fairer healthcare system that leaves no person or community behind.
"Given the task ahead I am unfortunately unable to meet to discuss these issues at present. However, please rest assured we are committed to fixing the front door to the NHS and further funding to support NHS organisations delivering local and national priorities will be considered as part of the forthcoming Spending Review."
