My constituents have raised concerns over St Luke’s and Botley Surgery with me, particularly in relation to waiting times for appointments, and I have proactively passed these concerns on to St Luke’s and Botley Surgery and the NHS West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Further to those enquiries, I recognise that St Luke’s had already started to address many of the concerns before the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection had taken place, and the CCG has been clear that they are committed to improving services for patients. I look forward to hearing more about this important work when I meet with the Chief Officer of the CCG, Heather Hauschild, this Friday.
All of us recognise and appreciate the enormous contribution that our local GPs, nurses and care professionals provide within our communities, and having had the opportunity to meet with many of our NHS workers locally, I would like to point out that while changes need to be made, the Inspectors did praise staff at St Luke’s for treating patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
There are, however, clearly issues that need to be addressed, and I look forward to my meeting on Friday to discuss how these can be overcome as a matter of urgency to ensure that people within our community are receiving the care that they need and deserve. Meanwhile, I welcome that nationally the Government will deliver 5,000 additional doctors working in General Practice by 2020, through new incentives for training, recruitment, retention and return to practice.