I met last Friday with Dr Philip Stevens, our Locality GP Chair and superb Brackley GP, to discuss a number of healthcare priorities across South Northamptonshire.

Brackley Medical Centre

Progress on the new Brackley Medical Centre, which will replace the much-loved Cottage Hospital that closed a few years ago, is proceeding apace, and it is due to open within the next few months. I am absolutely delighted that, by working together with local healthcare partners and through the drive of Dr Stevens and others, we have secured this fantastic new health space for the town and surrounding communities. It will feature a total of 16 step-down intermediate care beds, allowing patients to recuperate closer to home, as well as GP services, a pharmacy, x-ray facilities, a minor injuries unit, and a host of other healthcare services. I will be visiting the site later in March to see the progress for myself, by which point the Medical Centre should be only weeks away from formally opening!

Towcester Healthcare

I have been working with Dr Stevens and our excellent Towcester GPs through a Delivery Group to explore how Towcester can complement the new services available in Brackley with its own expansion of services. Money for healthcare has been made available through the southern extension planning consent, and I am supporting the Towcester Medical Centre in its bid for NHS England funding through the Estates and Technology Transformation Fund. I am pleased that Northamptonshire NHS Healthcare Foundation Trust is becoming more actively involved in supporting our work to expand services in Towcester, and it is currently undertaking a scoping exercise to look at what the town and surrounding area may need, given the new 5 Year Forward View and the move to a network of Primary Care Networks across South Northants, which will give people better access to services closer to home. The Delivery Group is considering how best to pull together a business plan to move this forward quickly in the next few months.

Roade Surgery

I know that Roade Surgery has plans to expand and move to a new site, and I have been working last year to support them in this. I met with representatives from Roade Surgery, and subsequently took their concerns over the funding process directly to the Chief Executive of Nene Clinical Commissioning Group, Mr Toby Sanders, who is responsible for the delivery of healthcare in our area. Mr Sanders understood the local need, and confirmed that Roade was high on Nene CCG’s priority list. Following our meeting last Friday, Dr Stevens and I have written to Roade Surgery to ask them for an update on their plans.

Byfield Surgery

I was extremely pleased that Daventry District Council did not accept the recommendations of the planning officers to refuse planning permission for the new Byfield Surgery and that, given the overwhelming support of the hundreds of residents who turned up to the planning meeting, they have deferred the matter for further consideration. Although Byfield is in the neighbouring constituency of my colleague Chris Heaton-Harris MP, I know many South Northants residents use the services there. Chris and I are working together to ensure this shared priority for both our constituencies remains at the top of the agenda.

Out-of-Hours Care

I have been made aware by Cllr Fiona Baker that there are still ongoing issues with the 111 service and the ability of South Northants residents to self-present to out-of-hours care at the Horton and in Banbury. This is very disappointing, as Fiona, Dr Stevens and I had worked very hard last year to resolve this, and we had been assured by Nene CCG and Oxfordshire CCG that the problem had been fixed. I have taken this up directly again with the Chief Executives of both organisations, and will report back as soon as I can.

Dr Stevens and I also covered a number of other issues, including the ongoing renegotiation of the GP contracts nationwide between the British Medical Association and NHS England; the East Midlands Ambulance Service and what can be done to drive down waiting times; the campaign by Andrew Lewer, supported by me and all Northants Conservative MPs, to merge adult social care and healthcare at a unitary level to improve the patient experience; and the importance of providing full perinatal, maternal and infant mental health services to new parents to ensure every child gets the best possible start in life – an absolute passion of mine.

I am really grateful to Dr Stevens for spending so much time with me on a Friday afternoon to discuss our shared vision for improving healthcare across South Northants, and thank him for all the fantastic work he does on behalf of patients right across the county.