Three quarters of people living in Wantage, Didcot, and the surrounding area have struggled to get GP appointments in the past 12 months, according to a new survey.

MP for Wantage David Johnston presented the results of his six-week survey into healthcare provision in his constituency as he led a debate in Parliament on May 18.

Almost 3,000 people responded to the survey, which asked for their experience accessing health services.

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Mr Johnston said: “Overwhelmingly, I heard over and again that we need more GP surgeries and more dental surgeries.

"People would like to see other services, such as more mental health provision and more physiotherapy provision, but GPs and dentists had by far the biggest responses.”

Of those who responded, more than 75 per cent said they had found it difficult to get a GP appointment over the last year and 44 per cent reported the same for dental appointments.

One in 10 said they had no trouble and five per cent had not tried to access services.

Mr Johnston said: “The situation is most acute in Didcot, where I live. Huge numbers of people have come to live in Didcot in recent years.

“The Great Western Park estate, with 3,500 homes, was promised a GP surgery, and it is still waiting eight years later, with absolutely no progress having been made.

“Meanwhile, the new Valley Park development on the border of Didcot will have 4,200 homes, so it will add a lot of pressure.

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“Those two estates alone will add about 18,000 people to the area’s population, which is more than enough to fill a GP surgery, yet we continue to see no progress.

“After encouraging people not to use NHS services if they could avoid it during covid, we now have a backlog to address, but there was an issue long before covid, too. Infrastructure has not kept pace with population growth.”

Mr Johnston said the difficulty in getting appointments was not the fault of existing GP surgeries, several of which he said have ‘closed their books temporarily because they were simply unable to take on many more patients.’

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He called for more accountability for local councils and local health leaders to deliver services that match population increases.

The MP said he wanted to ‘bang heads together’ to make progress on improving provision and added ‘it is a shame that it is not within an MP’s control to be able to deliver new GP surgeries.’

He said: “This is not the first time I have talked about this matter - I have done so more than 20 times - and it will not be the last; I will do so until my constituents get the health services they deserve.”