A SOMERSET MP’s constituency is set to help inform a report by England’s chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, about improving the NHS in rural and coastal areas.

Rachel Gilmour MP (Liberal Democrat, Tiverton and Minehead), met Sir Chris as part of his initial work for a report investigating the challenges of providing health services in ‘underserved communities’.

Ms Gilmour said coastal towns and rural areas, both of which represent significant parts of her constituency, often face issues around recruiting and retaining doctors and dentists, as well as demographics.

A lack of transport can also be a problem for people accessing work and education, with improvements to rural bus services regularly under debate.

Other MPs have also raised the plight of dentistry, in particular, in the county, with debates in parliament last year suggesting some patients have to wait nearly four years.

In the first two months of a scheme aimed at getting more dentists to work in underserved areas, which involved paying a £20,000 golden hello, just one applicant in Devon had come forward.

Ms Gilmour said Sir Chris highlighted several issues that could be tackled to help improve provision.

“Most dentists tend to practice where they trained, which is similar to doctors, so if we encourage them to train at the Peninsula Medical School (in Devon), then more of the graduates are likely to stay in the westcountry once they finish training,” Ms Gilmour said.

“The really positive thing I took away from the meeting with Sir Chris is that one of the most practical and fundamental things in terms of getting better NHS facilities in a constituency like mine is to encourage children in local schools to go and train and get qualified in health-related jobs.”

Ms Gilmour says her constituency suffers from a severe lack of sixth form provision, which is a “major blocker to aspiration and education” and, therefore, potentially to young people working in the NHS.

She added that Sir Chris “will be looking at lots of places (around the country) but the interest in my constituency is the coastal town issues and the rural areas where NHS provision is tricky.”

Ms Gilmour said one dental surgery in her constituency was willing to provide 48 NHS appointments a month, but the health service had not contacted them to confirm the arrangement.

“I chased this up, but the behemoths that are NHS boards are standing in the way of progress,” she said.

“This dentist has been asked to provide these appointments, and they are willing because they are good community champions.

“As an MP, you have hotlines to government services and ministries so you can help your constituents, but if you call the ICB you can’t talk to them directly, you just get a switchboard.

“This needs to change; if the NHS is going to be the human-facing organisation that it is, then the people running it need to change their approach.”