Today I have attended the 2nd GP summit in the city. I wanted to give Portsmouth North residents an update and overview of today's event.
Today the conference brought together GP's from across the city as well as representatives and other health bodies such as PHU, Solent NHS, city pharmacies and others.
Positive steps have been taken since the first summit last year. It was fantastic to hear from the University of Portsmouth and specifically around the creation of a new medical school looking that is looking to come online within the next few years so we can start to train up our own GPs locally. As ever, there is more work to be done and it will include looking into how we use the experience of the local Hospital Trusts in regards to international recruitment of GP's and health professionals and how this 'best practice' can be assimilated into our own Primary Care practices.
It was also good to hear from the Community Pharmacy sector at todays conference. They gave a comprehensive update on how Portsmouth is working very closely with GP practices and other settings to help take some of the strain and pressures off, to better serve local people who desperately need access to health services. The Community Pharmacy sector is making a big difference in this area.
I can report that further positive conversations continue with Penny Mordaunt MP around the situation in Cosham currently around the closure of the North Harbour practice.
Finally, more needs to be done to help let people know about what the multiple roles that lie within the Primary Care Trust's remit and around the work that they do.
As you'd expect, there are lots of points to take away and work to be done by the big health organisations, trusts and practices to help retain and attract new GP's to the city. And I give you my assurance on behalf of Portsmouth Conservatives that locally we will continue to fight for the very best services for residents across the city.
Cllr Lewis Gosling, Copnor Ward
Conservative Spokesman for Health and Social Care.
