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Healthcare in Rural Areas
04 March 2026
Lead MP
Blake Stephenson
Mid Bedfordshire
Con
Responding Minister
Stephen Kinnock
Tags
NHSSocial CareEmploymentAgriculture & Rural AffairsLocal Government
Word Count: 9331
Other Contributors: 15
At a Glance
Blake Stephenson raised concerns about healthcare in rural areas in Westminster Hall. A government minister responded.
Key Requests to Government:
The Minister is asked to consider amending the Government's plans for neighbourhoods to serve rural communities better, with neighbourhoods of around 10,000 people rather than 50,000. There is a request for assurances that additional funding will be provided for GP surgeries in new towns, and not at the expense of existing rural communities. The lead MP also suggests allowing councils and ICBs to benefit from developer contributions from the day planning permission is granted to ensure infrastructure is in place before new developments.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Lead Contributor
Rural communities face significant challenges in accessing healthcare due to their larger geographical spread and fewer people per area. There are nine GP surgeries in Mid Bedfordshire compared to 20 in Ilford North. The proposed neighbourhood health service, with a geography of 50,000 people, will not benefit rural areas like Mid Bedfordshire, where people will have to travel to major towns for services. The recent centralisation of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) covering larger areas has made it difficult for rural communities to get the attention they need. In Wixams, a new town in the constituency, the long-promised GP surgery has not materialised despite promises since 2007, and residents find it hard to get action from the ICB. The Government's plans for mayoral areas and integrated care boards are also problematic, diluting the political pressure rural communities can bring. In the decade since 2016, the number of patients per fully qualified GP in Bedfordshire has increased by 18%, and rural communities have seen significant development without corresponding healthcare infrastructure.
Amanda Hack
Lab
North West Leicestershire
Amanda Hack discussed the challenges of accessing healthcare services on Sundays and the importance of community pharmacies in rural areas. She highlighted the high rate of asthma in her constituency and the difficulty residents face in accessing medicines due to the isolation of pharmacies in rural areas.
Aphra Brandreth
Con
Chester South and Eddisbury
Allocating NHS resources on a per head basis disadvantages rural communities, as nearly a quarter of the rural population is over 65 and the population is ageing faster than in urban areas, urging the Minister to review the funding formula to reflect age profile, travel times, and sparsity.
Charlotte Cane
Lib Dem
Ely and East Cambridgeshire
Charlotte Cane discussed the neglect of rural healthcare, citing underfunding and a lack of recovery from the pandemic. She mentioned poor dental provision with over 2,300 people per dentist, and a high percentage of children not seeing a dentist in two years. Cane stressed the importance of reliable transport and connectivity for accessing healthcare, and asked the Minister for a strategy to end neglect in rural healthcare, including new services and better connectivity.
Gregory Stafford
Con
Farnham and Bordon
Gregory Stafford highlighted the strain on primary care due to rapid housing growth in rural areas, noting that the supporting infrastructure, particularly for GP services, has not kept pace. He raised concerns about the 50,000 population threshold for the NHS neighbourhood health programme, which excludes rural and semi-rural communities. Stafford also discussed the closures of pharmacies and the challenges of integrating care during ICB mergers and abolitions.
Henry Tufnell
Lab
Mid and South Pembrokeshire
Henry Tufnell highlighted the unique challenges faced by rural Wales, particularly in accessing healthcare due to distance and cross-border issues. He reported that 85% of respondents in his constituency found it difficult to secure a GP appointment, and 88% did not have access to NHS dentistry. Tufnell called for better communication and transfer of medical records between England and Wales.
Jessica Brown-Fuller
Lib Dem
Chichester
Residents in Bosham are facing a four-month wait for GP appointments while new developments are planned, highlighting the need for an infrastructure-first principle to address the lack of healthcare provision for new residents.
Jim Shannon
DUP
Strangford
Jim Shannon, representing a rural constituency, outlined the difficulties his constituents face in accessing healthcare due to long travel distances and limited public transport. He noted that one in ten patients in his constituency live more than five miles from a practice and highlighted issues with GP shortages and dental care. He mentioned that 53,000 NHS patients were removed from dental practice lists due to dentists handing back their NHS contracts, leading to a lack of choice but to pay in the private sector. Shannon emphasised the need for better healthcare provision in rural areas.
Katie Lam
Con
Weald of Kent
The MP discussed the challenges of sustaining local GP services in rural areas, welcomed the Government's plans to prioritise British medical graduates, and expressed concerns about the BMA's opposition to initiatives like Pharmacy First and the use of physician associates.
Lizzi Collinge
Lab
Morecambe and Lunesdale
The MP highlighted the funding issues faced by hospital trusts serving dispersed rural populations, the challenges in staff recruitment due to limited professional development opportunities, and the financial and logistical difficulties faced by patients in accessing transport for healthcare services.
Rachel Gilmour
Lib Dem
Tiverton and Minehead
Rachel Gilmour highlighted the challenges faced by her elderly constituents in accessing healthcare due to poor transport connectivity. She mentioned that it can take two hours and £180 in taxi fare for constituents to reach the nearest hospital. She criticised the Government for rejecting a permanent CT scanner installation in Minehead, citing it as uneconomical despite its significant benefit to local people. She urged the Government to consider the importance of rurality and remoteness in healthcare delivery costs.
Richard Foord
Lib Dem
Honiton and Sidmouth
Richard Foord highlighted the unique challenges of rural healthcare, noting longer ambulance response times, longer waiting periods for cancer diagnoses, and difficulties in accessing GP practices. He mentioned that the south-west had the fewest GP practices and experienced a 2% decrease in the number of GP practices between 2024 and 2025. Foord also discussed issues such as poor digital connectivity, older populations, and dementia care in rural areas, citing specific challenges faced by his constituents.
Roz Savage
Lib Dem
South Cotswolds
Roz Savage focused on the impact of service reductions at Cirencester community hospital and the potential closure of the Tolsey GP surgery in Sherston. She expressed concern about the reduction of services at Cirencester hospital, which contradicts the NHS 10-year plan's emphasis on care closer to home. Savage also mentioned that a petition had gathered nearly 2,000 signatures in a few days, reflecting the public's concern.
Samantha Niblett
Lab
South Derbyshire
Samantha Niblett highlighted the challenges in accessing healthcare in rural areas, noting issues such as distance, limited public transport, and difficulties in attracting healthcare professionals. She mentioned specific issues like a high number of falls among older residents leading to emergency hospital admissions, and a constituent struggling to access physiotherapy and wheelchair provision due to lack of specialists and poor accessibility. She called for fairer funding, stronger incentives for recruitment, and a commitment to community-based services.
Sarah Gibson
Lib Dem
Chippenham
Rural communities, such as those in Lyneham, face poor GP surgeries and a lack of future health services, leading to longer wait times and a feeling of being left behind.
Sarah Jones
Lab
Rotherham
Sarah Jones expressed agreement with the lead MP's concerns, noting the difficulties rural communities face in accessing healthcare and the need for tailored solutions that reflect their unique needs.
Government Response
Stephen Kinnock
Government Response
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I congratulate the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) on securing this vital debate. I am also grateful to other hon. Members for making excellent contributions this afternoon. We know that the NHS faces pressures all over the country, with rural communities experiencing unique health and wellbeing challenges shaped by geography, demography, infrastructure and access to services. Our 10-year health plan is a commitment to rewire our NHS, with the three shifts to improve access to healthcare for everyone—no matter where you live or how much you earn. Neighbourhood health provides the unifying framework that will bring together what is already under way across primary care, community services, urgent care, prevention, digital, estates and population health more broadly. We recognise that neighbourhood services will need to look different across rural and urban areas to best meet the needs of each community. Delivery will be locally led, with systems determining how neighbourhood health is designed to meet local population need. We are expanding capacity across England, including to the areas that need it most. We are investing over £480 million extra into GP services this year, including investment in the primary care workforce, ensuring places like Mid Bedfordshire get the resources and GPs that they need. Since October 2024, we have invested £160 million into the additional roles reimbursement scheme, which has supported the recruitment of over 2,000 GPs—smashing our manifesto pledge of 1,000 additional GPs. Furthermore, the introduction of a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme, worth £292 million, will enable practices to hire additional GPs or fund extra sessions with existing GPs. We are also seeing the results of those broad efforts. I am absolutely delighted that patient satisfaction has risen by over 15% since July 2024, from 60% to 75%, and an additional 6.8 million GP appointments have been delivered compared with the same period last year. We are reforming the dental contract to match resources to need and to improve access. As a first step, our 2026 reforms are focused on improving the dental contract to deliver the right care to the right people, including those in rural areas, while incentivising NHS dentists to provide more NHS care, with additional urgent appointments and new pathways for patients with complex needs. We are also continuing to recruit dentists under the golden hello scheme, which offers dentists £20,000 to work in underserved areas. Urgent and emergency care is also a challenge for rural areas. We are ensuring that the country gets the care it needs, when it needs it. We launched our urgent and emergency care plan for 2025-26, supported by a substantial £450 million of capital investment. That will enable the upgrade of hundreds of ambulances and the expansion of urgent and emergency care capacity, reducing A&E wait times and getting more ambulances back on the road, more quickly. Rural adult social care services are really important. Local authorities are responsible for shaping their care markets to meet the diverse needs of local people. However, the Government are also committed to ensuring adult social care funding reflects the costs that different communities face, which is why we have updated the formula used to distribute funding for adult social care to local authorities to include a remoteness adjustment. That means that the funding distribution better reflects the cost of providing care in different parts of the country. To give the local picture in the constituency of the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire, between 2025-26 and 2028-29, central Bedfordshire is set to see its notional allocation for adult social care services increase by £11.3 million, which is more than a 7% cash increase above budgeted adult social care spend. We are expanding capacity across England, including to the areas that need it most. We are investing over £480 million extra into GP services this year, including investment in the primary care workforce, ensuring places like Mid Bedfordshire get the resources and GPs that they need. We launched our urgent and emergency care plan for 2025-26, supported by a substantial £450 million of capital investment. That will enable the upgrade of hundreds of ambulances and the expansion of urgent and emergency care capacity, reducing A&E wait times and getting more ambulances back on the road, more quickly.
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About Westminster Hall Debates
Westminster Hall debates are a chance for MPs to raise important issues affecting their constituents and get a response from a government minister. Unlike Prime Minister's Questions, these debates are more in-depth and collaborative. The MP who secured the debate speaks first, other MPs can contribute, and a minister responds with the government's position.