It was confirmed at the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee last Thursday that there would be a new cross-party task group to assess the performance of GPs in Medway.

Cllr Teresa Murray, Medway Labour and Co-operative Group Spokesperson for Health said:

 “The announcement of the creation of a cross-party task group on the subject of GPs in our area is a great development. Previous Medway Task Groups have received positive national attention for their work. 

“We’ve been calling for this for some time as there were problems long before the pandemic, so we’re hoping that we’ll be able to find solutions to deliver better health outcomes for our residents.

“It is really vital that we achieve consistency of access to local healthcare across all of Medway especially as we know that there is a backlog of routine health checks after the pandemic. 

“The Task Group will  help us to understand why provision in Medway is falling short compared to other places, we want all of our GPs to be able to meet the performance levels of the best ones in our towns and elsewhere.

“We look forward to hearing from the new Integrated Care Partnership for Kent and Medway which will be fully transitioned from the old CCG by 1st July, they have announced they are already working on the shortage of GPs so we want to make sure Medway is prioritised.”