General Practitioners: Tunbridge Wells
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department have had discussions with NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board on the use of section 106 funding from new housing developments to expand access to GP services and improve the quality of GP premises in the Tunbridge Wells constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
We recognise the challenges significant housing and population growth can place on primary care infrastructure.
The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government to determine how the developer contributions system can be strengthened and improved to support the planning and delivery of the required social infrastructure in areas of population growth, alongside how developer contributions from new housing developments can be better used towards local health services and infrastructure.
The NHS Kent and Medway Integrate Care Board is responsible for commissioning, including planning, securing, and monitoring, general practice services within their health systems through delegated responsibility from NHS England. The National Health Service has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient medical services, including general practices, in each local area. It should take account of population growth and demographic changes and how the impact can be offset through investment of developer contributions and other sources of centrally allocated capital.
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