Meeting to call for clear plan of action to secure future healthcare for Leighton Buzzard residents

A clear plan of action for future healthcare in Leighton Buzzard is being called for following a recent GP patient survey.

A meeting organised by the town’s three GP Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and the Beds, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB) is to be held to review the survey which received more than 5,300 responses.

Edith Griffith, chair of the Bassett Road PPG which organised the campaign for improved healthcare provision in the town, said: “An urgent meeting is being arranged with the Beds, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB) to set out residents’ views as expressed in the survey and to receive the results of the recent ‘scoping exercise’ undertaken by the BLMK ICB on current services available.

“That’s when we will press the ICB to explain how, when and where LB residents might expect their healthcare needs to be addressed.

"This survey clearly lists our needs, now Leighton Buzzard needs a clear plan of action from the BLMK ICB.”The survey, organised by the town’s three Patient Participation Groups (PPGs), asked residents to comment on GP and general healthcare services,including the need for an urgent medical centre in the town.

Ms Griffith, added: “Over 5,300 patients registered at the town’s three GP surgeries recently completed a survey on the town’s healthcare needs.

"The volunteers who make up the town’s PPGs are overwhelmed by the hugely positive response to the survey.

Rose Gunter, vice chair of the Bassett Road PPG, commented: “For some time, the PPGs have been pressing those who hold the purse strings to raise the healthcare needs of Leighton Buzzard higher up their order of priorities.

"For decades Leighton Buzzard has been promised improved healthcare services but nothing has ever happened. The public meeting organised by Andrew Selous MP earlier in the year clearly demonstrated the depth of feeling among the Leighton Buzzard population on the matter.

"The land off Vandyke Road which Andrew Selous announced recently would be released to support better local healthcare, was originally designated as the site of a cottage hospital back in the 1980s.”

Just 10 per cent of the 51,200 registered patients responded to the survey calling for better healthcare amid concerns over booking GP appointments.