Teynam residents struggle to see a GP
Although residents are able to go to the nearby hospital, but many of the village's elderly residents don't have a way of getting there.
Kristin Hawthorne reports.
Kristin Hawthorne reports.
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00:00Residents in Tenham have been left without a GP practice for over two years.
00:04In the area there is just one GP per 1,700 people and figures show that this is the worst GP ratio
00:12across the whole country. Plans have been made to build hundreds of homes in the area
00:17but it could be years before a GP practice is underway.
00:21If you want to set up a practice from scratch there are a lot of hurdles you have to go through.
00:27You've got to be talking to the integrated care board, the ICB,
00:31about whether there's a need for GPs in the area because you'll need some approval to
00:35be able to do that. You have to get something called a performance list as well
00:39and then you've got to look for premises.
00:41Residents in Tenham have expressed their concern and frustration over the issue.
00:46First of all it's difficult to get an appointment. If you don't ring at eight
00:49o'clock each morning then you've got no hope of getting an appointment that day.
00:53That's if there are any appointments. If you don't ring at eight o'clock that day and miss
00:58the appointment and want an appointment you've got to wait like four weeks waiting time
01:03which is ridiculous really in some circumstances. Some things are quite urgent.
01:08I tend not to if I've got health problems I'm tending not to put mine on a back seat
01:15purely because it's the convenience of not walking to a doctor's anymore.
01:20And the other alternative I've got is to do an e-consult which isn't ideal
01:24and that's the only thing I can do now. I can't do anything else.
01:28Kent and Medway as a whole have got some of the largest list sizes
01:33but it's particularly a problem in Medway and Swale and Swale has the highest numbers.
01:38It is very easy to be in a downward spiral when it comes to GP numbers
01:44that can be because a GP leaves for very reasonable reasons such as retirement
01:50but then someone coming in will take a look and say well that list size is large and I could go
01:55somewhere else and do less work because in general the amount of workload depends on the number of
02:00patients you're having to look after. With the long unfeasible walk to the GP for many,
02:06a long waiting list, lack of parking at the site, unreliable buses and expensive taxis,
02:11the future of the health and well-being for people in Tenham is uncertain.