Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough and Minister for Primary Care, has welcomed moves by the local NHS to draw up a plan for the future of health services in Harborough.
Neil met with representatives from a range of local NHS services, local councillors and others to talk about the forthcoming review.
Neil said:
“It is great that the local NHS are going to work with local people to plan out what health services we need and want locally.
There’s recognition from the local NHS that Harborough is a fast-growing place, so we will need to keep building up NHS services to match the population.
I’m particularly keen that we plan for GP capacity. There are already about 30% more clinical staff in general practice in this constituency than there were in 2019. We already took the number of doctors in GP training from over 2,600 a year to a record 4,000 and are now growing the number to 6,000 a year – we are going to need to expand facilities so they have space to work in.
In the government’s recent Primary Care Plan we set out changes to planning rules so that more of the funds raised from new developments flow into investments in GP services. Drawing up this plan for Harborough will fit well with that and further improve our ability to ensure that new housing always leads to the extra GP provision that’s needed.
Local NHS leaders also agreed they will take actions to sort out the signs at St Luke’s and make it clear what is available there at what times, which is an issue I have been pressing them on for some time.
As the plan starts to get going we will be talking to as many local residents as possible about what they want to see happen locally.
I’m also encouraged that there are plans for Leicestershire NHS to work more closely with Northamptonshire. Because Market Harborough is right on the border, we would particularly benefit from a more joined up approach.”
