Councillors have agreed to write an open letter to local MPs asking for the "state of play" concerning GP access and primary care in the Maldon district, after calling booking appointments one of the "biggest problems" facing residents.

Councillor Chrisy Morris, who proposed the open letter, told a meeting of Maldon District Council last night (Thursday, 24 February) that one of residents' "biggest gripes" is the "lack of appointments at the GP surgeries in this district".

He suggested writing the letter to Maldon MP John Whittingdale and Witham MP Priti Patel asking them to "raise the lack of GP access by possible parliamentary question, if necessary".

He said the letter should also "enquire about emergency funding for Maldon district and any other areas with high patient to doctor ratios to assist the residents and the emergency departments of our hospitals, which are also under strain in these medically-deprived areas".

It was revealed in November that the Maldon district has one of the highest GP to patient ratios in the country, according to data from the Nuffield Trust.

The data showed the Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which covers Maldon and Chelmsford, has one GP per 1,993 patients - placing it in the top 20 most stretched CCGs in England.

While councillors agreed with Councillor Morris' letter in principle, they said they had been raising issues surrounding primary care in Maldon for a long time.

Councillor Stephen Nunn said he wanted to "keep the wheels moving" as opposed to "starting from scratch".

He said: "Whilst I concur this motion is very well-meaning and in the right direction, the public need to be aware that this is not a new issue - this is not something that has just come up at this meeting, that many of us in this chamber have had correspondence with our residents, have been complaining and have been trying to deal with this for some time now."

Councillor Penny Channer, district council leader, said: "Mr Whittingdale has already done many of these things - he's acutely aware of the continued problems that his constituents are experiencing."

In the House of Commons in December, Mr Whittingdale asked Edward Argar, minister for health, what the Government had been doing to address access to primary care in mid Essex.

Mr Argar said there had been "significant investment" in supporting GP practices to return to face-to-face appointments following lockdown through additional funding, which was announced in October.

Mr Whittingdale also met with the Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in November to discuss issues with booking GP appointments in Maldon and residents "facing long waits to get through to someone".

He was told specialist equipment was being given to practices to improve telephone infrastructure to handle demand, and that the CCG was investigating why "some practices are performing better than others".

Councillor Stephen Nunn said at last night's meeting: "The CCG is well aware of the concerns that we have here in Maldon, and as a result they've put an inspection team into one of the surgeries recently to see what they could do to address that."

He added: "What we want is an update from the MP on the actions that have been taken as opposed to starting from scratch."

Councillor Channer said the letter "should be framed as an update on the situation, the current state of play as of now" to see how far the issues "may have progressed by the time the letter gets to him".

But Councillor Mark Bassenger said: "We need to look specifically at the one line here which is 'to raise the lack of GP access' and that is something that's very specific to the last two years - now it's very very difficult, and I don't understand why, to see your GP."

Councillor Nick Skeens added: "I completely accept that just about every member of this council has done just about everything they can to address this issue, but I think that we need to send a letter.

"I think that the way this letter is worded is fine though we could add to it: 'And please give us an update.'

"Why on earth would they not do that automatically because we should be told automatically.

"This is a vital thing - the more pressure we put on the better."

Councillors agreed to write the letter proposed by Councillor Morris but to amend it, on the suggestion of Councillor Channer, to "acknowledge the work done so far on the current situation".

Councillor Channer said the points raised by Councillor Bassenger could be "weaved" into the updated letter.

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