As part of his ongoing MakeHealthcareLocal campaign, Welwyn Hatfield MP Grant Shapps recently met with the new heads of the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to receive assurances that Extended Access GP appointments are being made available to all registered patients in Welwyn Hatfield.
Doctors Moodley and Shah, both of whom are practising GP’s, were recently appointed as the Chair and Deputy Chair of the CCG, which is responsible for commissioning health services in East and North Hertfordshire.
During the meeting, Grant Shapps raised a number of pressing issues including Extended Access GP appointments ensuring that all patients can now see their GP out of hours. These early morning and evening and weekend appointments are available to all patients registered with the 9 local GP surgeries in Welwyn Hatfield.
The MP also raised the performance of the ambulance service, hospital IT system errors, and a recent CQC inspection report on the QEII Urgent Care Centre.
Under the Extended Access scheme, patients from any local surgery can obtain appointments at Spring House Medical Centre in WGC from 8am-8pm during weekdays, and during mornings on weekends. To address the present situation where patients are needlessly sent to Lister hospital, the CCG will now also look to widen and improve awareness of the services which can be treated at the QEII Urgent Care Centre on evenings and weekends.
Following the meeting Grant said: “It was great to meet Dr’s Moodley and Shah to discuss my MakeHealthcareLocal campaign, and the local health challenges we all want to see addressed. I was anxious to discuss Extended Access GP appointments and agreed to help publicise the fact that these are now available to all local patients.”
In February Grant launched his MakeHealthcareLocal campaign to see health services, such as phlebotomy, chemotherapy, midwife-led maternity services and others either improved or returned to the Welwyn Hatfield area. He is currently undergoing a tour of all GP surgeries in the constituency, as part of his campaign.
To find out more about the campaign visit www.MakeHealthcareLocal.org.
