Wednesday 15 June 2022 04:46 PM Tory MP says No10's hated push to build new homes a year is surgeries GP ... trends now
Massive new housing estates cropping up across England are only making the GP crisis worse, a Tory MP claimed today.
Andrew Selous, who represents South West Bedfordshire, said practices can't cope with the sheer number of people moving into huge developments.
Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, the Conservative said the matter was a 'life and death issue'.
He told how a 51-year-old father, from his constituency, was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer after he struggled to get a GP appointment.
Boris Johnson said ensuring new housing areas get proper medical infrastructure is 'a very important issue', insisting he 'will take it up personally'.
The push to develop new housing formed a part of No10's manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year.
Yet it sparked warnings that English villages were being 'swallowed up' by sprawling towns.
Ministers have been forced to water down their planning reforms to appease Tory voters furious about developers wrecking neighbourhoods and the green belt.
It comes as Health Secretary Sajid Javid and NHS England's boss Amanda Pritchard today both admitted general practice isn't working.
Thousands of patients are struggling to secure appointments, forcing many to go straight to already under-pressure A&E departments.
Andrew Selous (left), who represents South West Bedfordshire, said GP practices can't cope with the sheer number of people moving into huge developments. Boris Johnson (right) said ensuring new housing areas get proper medical infrastructure is 'a very important issue', insisting he 'will take it up personally'
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Selous said: 'Many areas like mine have already had massive new housing developments with no commensurate increase in general practice capacity.
'In one of my surgeries with double the recommended number of patients per GP, a bowel cancer diagnosis of a 51-year-old father of four was missed and he's now terminal.'
He added: 'Getting this right is a life and death issue.
'So will the Prime Minister make sure that parts of the country that have already had massive new housing growth get the commensurate increase in general practice capacity that is only right and fair?'
In response, Mr Johnson boasted about GP numbers increasing by 1,200 since this time last year across the country.
But he said: 'We must make sure areas, particularly where sensitive development is going in, that there are the infrastructure services, particularly the medical services that they need.
'The NHS has a statutory duty to take account of population growth.
'I know you've met the Health Secretary, I will take it up personally to make sure we get a proper approach to what is I think a very important issue.'
Residents and GPs themselves have previously objected to housing developments over fears they may overwhelm already struggling surgeries.
Currently, GP surgeries work with councils and local NHS chiefs to work out how to cater for population increases.
Under Michael Gove's Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, developers have to promise to deliver infrastructure — including the cost of GPs — in exchange for permission to build housing.
There is no recommendation for how many patients a GP should have, or a maximum list size per practice.
Countryside advocates have repeatedly criticised No10's push to build hundreds of thousands of homes a year, over fears it would lead to the concreting of swathes of southern England.
Destruction of the green belt was blamed for the party's shock loss in the Chesham and Amersham by-election last year.
Boris Johnson has been warned of a ballot box backlash amid anger that English villages are being 'swallowed up' by sprawling towns. Among the areas that has experienced huge recent change is Bicester in Oxfordshire (pictured), where the population could double to 50,000 in the next 20 years if 13,000 planned homes are built in the designated 'garden town'. The map shows how 'urban sprawl' has already changed the face of the former market town over the past decade - and seen it encroach on surrounding villages, practically swallowing them up as it expands
MILTON KEYNES AND BLETCHLEY: Buckinghamshire in 2000 (left) and 2021 (right) - with the scale of development revealing how countryside around the likes of Upper Weald (in the west) and Broughton (in the north east) is disappearing
Just days before May's local elections for millions, Michael Gove suggested the Tories wouldn't hit their bold manifesto
