SUPPORTING HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES
As we recover from the pandemic, improving our local healthcare services is one of my top priorities, by backing Healthier Communities, we can improve local health outcomes across Sedgefield and revitalise our high streets which have suffered too much throughout the pandemic.
That’s why I am backing a campaign to ensure more local access to GP surgeries and other healthcare services across Sedgefield.
I attended an event in the House of Commons to support Healthier Communities- a campaign to ensure GP's surgeries, pharmacies and other local healthcare services are located within town or shopping centres.
This has the benefit of making healthcare services easily accessible for local people, and in revitalising local communities.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill - recently announced in the Queen's Speech - places improving high streets and town centre’s at the forefront of the government's priorities, giving local communities power to free up vacant properties.
The latest data underlines the importance of improving local healthcare outcomes, particularly following the pandemic.
In Sedgefield, an estimated 14.5% of adults are living with depression, in addition to 17.6% living with high blood pressure, and 7.4% with asthma.
Research shows the more easily people can access healthcare services, and the longer they have been treated by the same GP, health outcomes are improved. For someone who has been treated by the same GP for more than 15 years, the probability of acute hospitalisations and access to out-of-hours services decreased by up to 30%.
