Gideon's Taunton and Wellington Health Campaign

I’m campaigning for more resources for our NHS here in Taunton and Wellington. My new five point plan is calling for:

1. New NHS medical hubs with GPs to support the new housing in our area 

Patients in Somerset are having to wait weeks to see a GP. There are now more than 2,100 patients for every GP in our part of Somerset. Nationally, we also want a guarantee that patients should be able to see their GP within 7 working days.

2. Bringing back NHS dentists to be provided in medical hubs alongside GPs 

Nearly 50,000 children in Somerset have not seen a dentist for at least a year - increasingly people are not able to access an NHS dentist. 

3. A new Maternity Unit for Musgrove Park Hospital to be urgently provided 

Promises made in 2020 for a new hospital at Musgrove Park by 2030 have been silently dropped by the Government with no funding attached to the new maternity unit vitally needed to replace crumbling World War Two era buildings. 

4. Cancer patients to be guaranteed treatment within 62 days as part of the Lib Dem's proposed Cancer Patient Guarantee

588 cancer patients in Somerset NHS Foundation Trust waited more than 62 days to start treatment after being referred. Our full cancer guarantee can be seen here.­­­

5. Free social care so that no one needs to sell their home to pay for social care as part of a £5bn per year Lib Dem care funding package 

Hospitals in Somerset lose 2,196 bed days to social care backlogs and local authorities no longer have the money to fill the gap. Reform of social care funding is urgently needed and something the Conservative government keeps promising but has failed to deliver. 

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More Information: 

Our NHS and social care is in desperate need of a new deal. Our national manifesto will set out fully costed proposals to achieve just that – including the policy we have recently announced that 100% of cancer patients should receive treatment within 2 months of an urgent referral.

Boris Johnson’s promise of 40 new hospitals by 2030, including one in Taunton, amounted to nothing except four wasted years for our local NHS. Instead, our NHS Trust is driving forward  plans for a new maternity unit – it’s currently housed in crumbling United States Army buildings dating from 1941! But progress has been delayed by Government who downgraded the project to ‘Cohort 4’ meaning it still has no funding – despite all the Conservatives’ promises!

A key reason why, too often, patients cannot be discharged, as others wait for hours in ambulances for a bed to become available, is the unmanageable cost of social care that’s draining both families and councils around the country of their funds. Our plan for social care would:

• Ensure no one has to sell their home to pay for care by introducing free personal care, based on the model introduced by the Scottish Liberal Democrat-Labour government in 2002.

• Introduce a more generous means test, and assistance for those unable to pay for their accommodation costs.

• Move towards a preventative approach to social care, so people can stay in their own homes for longer.

• Introduce a real living wage for care workers and invest in skills, professionalisation and accreditation of the workforce.

• Provide a package to support unpaid carers.

Our local vision includes multi-purpose medical hubs which would include GPs, dentists and pharmacies. This model is a leading example of how we provide health care at a community level and would lessen the burden on Musgrove Park Hospital, especially as more housing is built.

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To get the medical hubs Taunton and Wellington need, and a better deal for our NHS and social care, we need your support so please fill in our quick survey below so we know how much these issues matter to you  –  thank you!