Healthcare

🏥 Healthcare, Transport and Access to Services

Perhaps the clearest local message I heard throughout my Summer Tour in 2026 tour about healthcare.

Whether I was speaking to people in our larger towns or smaller villages, residents repeatedly raised difficulties accessing GP appointments and other NHS services.

This is particularly important given the amount of housebuilding taking place across our part of Wiltshire. New homes need to come with the infrastructure required to support them.

That means GP capacity, dentists, schools, roads and public transport must keep pace with population growth rather than constantly trying to catch up afterwards.

I have therefore written to the relevant Government minister asking what is being done to ensure GP and wider healthcare provision keeps pace with housebuilding, particularly in areas such as ours where the absence of an up-to-date Wiltshire Local Plan is creating significant development pressures.

People also want to see us make better use of the healthcare facilities we already have.

That was particularly clear in Melksham, where I continue to campaign for more services at Melksham Hospital, including a Minor Injuries Unit and more routine NHS services delivered closer to home.

I have always believed that we should be making the fullest possible use of the facilities already sitting within our communities, and I will continue pursuing this with NHS leaders and the Government.

But healthcare cannot be considered in isolation.

A number of people also spoke to me about the difficulty of getting to medical appointments using public transport.

For somebody without access to a car, particularly an older resident or somebody living in one of our rural communities, being given an appointment in Bath or Swindon can present a significant logistical challenge.

Buses do not always run at the times people need them, connections can be difficult and what should be a relatively straightforward medical appointment can end up taking up a large part of somebody's day.

I want to look further into how we can develop a more joined-up approach between healthcare and transport provision.

There is little point offering someone an appointment if our public transport network makes it extraordinarily difficult for them to get there.

Other actions to improve healthcare locally:

• Supporting Chippenham MP Sarah Gibson with her campaign for a new Health Centre in Calne
• Supporting the Three Shires Surgery - Brian has raised the matter in Parliament