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'Grave concerns' West Lothian developments will increase pressure on GPs

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date11 November 2021
AuthorStuart Sommerville
Publication titleEdinburghLive (Scotland)
A report by the Health and Social Care Partnership recently revealed that almost 12,000 homes were planned to be built by 2027 mostly in the eastern end of the county- with another 8,000 planned beyond that date.

And as a planning application for Armadale comes back to the Development Management Committee next week, local councillor Stuart Borrowman has demanded a more detailed answer on how increasing the number of homes planned for the town would affect GP services and local road infrastructure.

In addition, the Joint Forum of Community Councils said there were "grave concerns" about the impact on GP services.

The Forum said: "This will bring huge demand and pressure on GP practices in the area, which will exceed their existing resources. This comes at a time when the Health Board has halted non urgent Elective Surgery at St John's Hospital due to staff shortages and high rates of COVID-19 infection. This will effectively halt any attempt to catch up on waiting lists for operations, which will affect those in every community.

It added: "We are concerned that the Health and Care Services in West Lothian cannot cope at the moment and the future looks even worse if nothing is done to address this.

"This situation is drastic and consequently we are suggesting that Community Councils put this on the agenda for their next meeting, to discuss the issues and raise their concerns with their local Councillors, MSPs and MPs."

Councillor Borrowman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that problems have existed for years in Armadale.

Studies predict the county's population will exceed 190,000 by 2025, from around 160,000 at the moment.

This will mean big...

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