DAVID HEATH WELCOMES U-TURN ON RURAL DOCTORS
12.31.28pm GMT Wed 17th Dec 2008
Local MP David Heath has welcomed an announcement today from Health Minister Phil Hope that the government no longer intend to go ahead with controversial changes to GP dispensing. David has been campaigning on the issue over the last six months in response to concerns expressed by doctors and patients in Somerset that the plans would remove dispensaries in the surgeries serving rural areas and make life difficult for patients.
David has raised the matter repeatedly in the House of Commons and in letters to Ministers, and says he is delighted with the announcement that the current arrangements will remain unchanged.
David said:
"This is excellent news, and a victory for common sense. I do not think the consequences for rural areas such as those served by Langport and Coleford surgeries in my constituency, for instance, were understood at all when the proposals were first published, but the flood of letters from those who would have been affected has really made a difference.
The surgery dispensaries make life a lot easier for people who need regular prescriptions, particularly if they don't have easy access to towns where they could conveniently visit a pharmacist, and it was always a nonsense, at least in rural areas, to do away with them.
That threat has now been lifted, and I am pleased that the arguments I and other colleagues representing rural areas have been putting have in this instance been listened to."
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