Extra pressure on village GP surgeries near Leamington due to lack of facilities at major new housing development

That was the message from Val Ingram, a member of the public who addressed this week's meeting of Warwickshire County Council’s adult social social care and health overview and scrutiny committee.

She said: “My understanding was that despite opposition to this housing, the decision was made to create a town which upon completion, will be the second largest in the Stratford district area. Although this is accepted, part of the conditions as I understand was the provision of infrastructure, the most important being the provision of a GP surgery.

“The land was gifted and a sum of £1.8m index linked was set aside for this purpose. There was also provision for a temporary health facility at Upper Lighthorne but for some unknown reason the CCG advised Stratford that this would not be necessary and relieved the developers of their original obligation which is very puzzling.”

She added that building work on the 3,000 homes was well underway but understood that the provision for GP services would only be triggered when there were 10,000 patients.

Ms Ingram added: “The problem is that as residents have moved in, and owing to there not being a surgery, they have been forced to register elsewhere. The knock-on is this in turn is putting considerable strain on satellite surgeries such as Kineton, Tysoe, Wellesbourne, Fenny Compton and further afield in Oxfordshire, the result of which is causing distress for existing patients and pressure on GPs.”

Committee chair Cllr Clare Golby (Con, Arbury) said there had been ongoing discussions about GPs, adding that it was a county-wide issue leading to backlogs in the health system.

Cllr Margaret Bell (Con, Hartshill and Mancetter), the portfolio holder for adult social care and health, said she had spoken to both the chair and chief executive of the Integrated Care Board.

She read out their response which said that an in depth appraisal into the needs of the Upper Lighthorne area was being carried out and this was likely to be completed by the end of the year.

Cllr Bell’s suggestion that the organisation’s chair and chief executive be invited to a future meeting was agreed by members.