Commenting on the news that Mannamead Surgery was handing back their contract, Luke Pollard MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport said:

“Yesterday I held a debate in Parliament about Plymouth’s crisis in primary care. On the same day thousands of patients started receiving letters telling them their local GP practice was handing back their contract and that a new provider was being sought. I’m liaising with the NHS and the City Council to make sure that patients remain unaffected. Patients come first, and no action is required from them. There will be a step-in provider taking over the contracts and the practice will remain in the same building for the time being. The new provider needs to be found and announced soon so patients are not disrupted or unnecessarily worried.

 

“For this to happen a day after I directly raised the issue of primary care in Plymouth with Ministers in the Commons shows the scale of the problems in the NHS and of the challenge facing primary care. Our doctors and nurses do a superb job but we cannot simply go on expecting more and more from them with less and less funding. Plymouth is one of the lowest funded areas in the UK and that has consequences for our public services. Ministers need to take bold action to address the crisis in primary care in Plymouth and that means supporting our hardworking GPs, recruiting and retaining more GPs and ensuring that there is more investment in general practice. Yesterday I called on them to act urgently and today I repeat that request.”