84% of Ealing Residents say ‘No' to polyclinics in Angie Bray's NHS survey

During the summer of 2009, Angie Bray, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the new Ealing Central & Acton constituency, conducted a survey of local residents seeking their views on local NHS and other services. The survey gave residents the opportunity to have their say about the provision of healthcare in the area, and voice their concerns over the changing nature of the system.

The survey showed that 84% of respondents would oppose Government plans to establish a polyclinic, if it would mean the closure of the local GP practice, in their area. 51% opposed them outright, whilst a further 33% opposed them if they were to lead to the closure of existing GP surgeries. Further analysis of the returned surveys showed that a staggering 49.3% are not registered with a local NHS dentist. Further to this, of those who had tried to register in the last few years, 33% were unable to do so.

Whilst the Government has yet to finalise any plans, Angie Bray met with Ealing PCT to present the findings of the survey and to seek clarification of the stage at which the proposals are. Ealing PCT insisted that there are no immediate plans to introduce any polyclinics into Ealing or to force smaller GP practices to close down or move. However, they also acknowledge that some small GP surgeries do not meet all the required criteria now demanded by the NHS, such as full disabled access, which may mean that they cannot continue to fund these premises.