Wes Streeting opens new clinical rooms that will provide over "56,000 additional GP appointments per year" on visit to Leighton Buzzard
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, visited Leighton Buzzard Health Centre yesterday (Thursday, June 19) to officially open new clinical rooms that will provide over “56,000 additional GP appointments per year”.
Speaking during the visit, Mr Streeting said the new rooms were a significant boost in capacity for local residents — but acknowledged that they do not provide a full solution to the area’s healthcare needs.
“It’s fantastic that we’ve got these upgraded facilities,” he said. “I’m proud that we’ve been able to make such a practical difference within the first year of the Labour government, but I wouldn’t pretend for a moment that this is the big solution that solved all of the local issues.”
The expansion is part of a national push to increase access to same-day care and relieve pressure on local GPs. Mr Streeting said an additional £900 million is being invested in general practice nationally, and that the government is focusing on shifting care closer to home.
“When we launch our 10-year plan for the NHS shortly, people will see there’s a big focus on shifting healthcare out of the hospital into the community.
“With the NHS being a neighbourhood health service as much as the national health service,” he said.
Asked what the £900 million means for ordinary people, Mr Streeting pointed to an increase in GP numbers.
“Since we came into government, we’ve been able to employ 1,700 more GPs onto the frontline with more still to come,” he said. “We’re modernising general practice as well — cutting through a lot of the red tape… so that when patients come in, the GP’s got access to their full patient record.”
Mr Streeting said these changes would take time to be felt but that the government was “impatient” to deliver progress.
“There are lots of things that the Labour government has done since we’ve come in, which will make a difference… but across the country people aren’t necessarily feeling that change yet,” he said.
Looking ahead to the planned Universal Studios theme park near Stewartby, which could bring thousands of new jobs and visitors, Mr Streeting said careful planning would be needed to ensure local NHS services were not overwhelmed.
“As we’re building new housing developments or big visitor-attracting infrastructure like the theme park, we’re planning ahead and making sure we’ve got capacity,” he said.
He said projects like the theme park and nearby airport expansion would also boost economic growth — helping fund NHS investment without increasing taxes.
Responding to a question about how so many new GPs were recruited so quickly, Mr Streeting said he had removed barriers that stopped qualified doctors getting jobs.
“We inherited this bizarre situation where we had fully qualified GPs who couldn’t get jobs at the same time as there were patients who couldn’t get GP appointments,” he said. “So I cut through some of the red tape.”
Although he welcomed the progress made, Mr Streeting concluded: “Quick wins aren’t the way I’m going to fundamentally fix the NHS. That’s why deeper reform matters.”