North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan has raised ‘serious concerns’ after it was revealed that more discretionary funding has been stripped from GP surgeries in Shropshire than any other area in England.
For GP services, discretionary funding applies to services outside their core contract. They make up 10% of GP funding overall, and are designed to allow flexibility to cater for specific local needs. Services like phlebotomy, anticoagulation monitoring, wound care, ECGs, and minor surgery are supported by this funding.
An investigation by the British Medical Journal found that the sharpest reduction in England for 2024-25 was in Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin ICB, which halved its discretionary spend on primary care services from £4.5m to £2.3m.
Not only is this the deepest cut in England, it leaves Shropshire bottom of the national league table for overall funding for discretionary care, at just £4.40 per head. The area with the highest funding per head is Somerset, where patients receive more than 12 times more funding each at £54.80 per head.
Helen Morgan, recently appointed as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Health and Care, has previously highlighted how Shropshire is one of the worst-hit counties in the ‘GP postcode lottery’ and called for additional support for GPs in rural areas.
Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire, said:
“People should have a right to access the care they need, when they need it. These statistics once again show that Shropshire is lagging far behind in funding, despite the fact that it often costs more – not less – to provide services in rural areas.
“Patients in Shropshire already face a postcode lottery when it comes to appointments, with hugely different results even between nearby villages. It is no wonder we have such problems with ambulance waits and full A&Es at Shrewsbury and Telford when people can’t get the care they need in the community.
“There needs to be a recognition from the Labour Government that rural areas like ours have different needs to the average, and that services have to be funded properly centrally to cater for us properly.”
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