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Clinics: Rural Areas

Asked by Jim ShannonDemocratic Unionist PartyDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 20 November 2025UIN 81857

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve mobile clinic provision in rural areas.

Answered by Karin Smyth

The integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the planning and commissioning of health services, including mobile clinic services.

In doing so ICBs must take into account the needs of their local population, which includes meeting the healthcare needs of their rural populations.

The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan commits to three big shifts which includes increasingly moving services away from centralised hospitals into the wider community.

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