Written Health Questions

Last month I tabled a number of written questions to the Secretary of State for Health, to gather data about the situation in Walsall South. Disappointingly, a lot of the data provided by the Minister was for the Black Country Integrated Care Board, which covers Walsall, Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley.

The number of fully qualified GPs continues to fall. There are now 1,808 fewer fully qualified GPs then there were in 2015. Whilst the Government promised in their 2019 manifesto to recruit 6,000 more GPs by 2024 – they are not close to reaching this. Many of my constituents have contacted me because they are struggling to get a GP appointment, or to be seen face-to-face.

The data that was provided showed that since 2013 the number of GP practices in Walsall South has fallen from 29 to 24.

The Secretary of State must lay out exactly how he will fix the crisis facing the NHS, especially given recent reports that its budget will face real-term budget cuts. The Government want people to believe that they can be trusted to protect the NHS, but after 12 years of broken promises, record backlogs and a workforce crisis, is clear that they are failing

Walsall South Stats

• In September 2013, there were 29 GP practices registered in Walsall South. In October 2022, 24 practices were registered in this region.
• The proportion of GP practices rated ‘good’ by the care quality commission has risen from 72% in April 2022, to 79.2% in October 2022. 
• The proportion of care homes rated as ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission fell from 61.9% in April 2021 to 54.5% in October 2022. 
• The number of people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes rose from 10 in 2016 to 15 in 2020, whilst the number of Type 2 and Other fell from 450 to 375. 
• In the 12 months to September 2022, there were 6.67 million general practice appointments in the NHS Black Country Integrated Care System, of which 65% were face-to-face.