One of the things that has come up on the doorsteps and which I am committed to work to improve is a lack access to NHS services locally.

I met with Ian Sollom, MP and the Firs House practice manager to discuss this in March. This is part of a larger piece of work across the surgeries in Ian’s constituency particularly those within the ‘orbit’ of Cambridge including Bar Hill, Girton, Willingham, Over, Darwin Green and Longstanton.

Broadly speaking GP surgeries are owned by practice partners. Whilst they are independently owned they operate according to rules determined centrally by the NHS. A big problem in our part of Cambridgeshire is that the population has grown fast but the rules have not responded to those changes, consequently some surgeries have spare capacity and would like to expand whereas others are straining at the seams unable to meet the demand and the rules are stopping them adjust to manage the changing demand.

Ian is building a case and lobbying government and the NHS in Cambridgeshire to change the rules and respond to a growing population. If government is demanding the country grows it must demonstrate that those areas which meet government’s growth targets are not effectively penalised for it with public services straining under the increased demand.

A couple of other things have come up on doorsteps relating to this.

Availability of appointments – Firs House explained that they can show that the availability of appointments has improved and that they have got far better at communicating when issues arise thereby managing both demand and expectations. Like others here I don’t go to the Doctor that often so I find it hard to know what the current situation is with getting appointments ie my impression is based on out of date, historic information. Also if you are trying to get an appointment on a day when they are understaffed this may colour your view of the capacity in the system. So communicating that the situation has changed across the community can be difficult.

Could Firs House operate differently? In another doorstep conversation a resident told me about how the surgery they used to attend was quite different from Firs House and they liked some of the exciting things that surgery did. Surgeries are independently owned. A lot of the culture and character of a surgery flows from the practice partners and their view of how they want the practice to operate. Firs House has a clear understanding of who they are and what they want to deliver; a good, solid service for local residents but their philosophy might not be the right fit for everyone here and there will be differences between this and other practices.

There is a patient participation group if you want to get more involved and have your voice heard more effectively by the surgery. https://www.hihub.info/news/firs-house-patient-group-reaches-out-to-the-community/