Back better neighbourhood health in North Dorset

Better health, wherever you live

Gary Jackson is calling for NHS Dorset to ring-fence a meaningful share of its budget for neighbourhood health and wellbeing - and for that investment to reach every part of North Dorset, not just the areas with the most developed networks.

Labour's neighbourhood health plan is focused on new buildings in urban areas. But in a constituency like North Dorset - dozens of dispersed villages, thin public transport, an ageing population - what people need is not a new building in a town they struggle to get to. The strategy overlooks the places that need it most. And Dorset has not ring-fenced a single penny of its budget for neighbourhood health, falling well behind places like Cornwall, which has committed £24 million to make it real.

Behind these statistics are GPs, nurses, pharmacists, social prescribers and voluntary organisations already working across a web of Primary Care Networks based around GP surgeries across North Dorset to bring care closer to the communities they serve. The Blackmore Vale Partnership is reaching into community settings. Practices in Blandford, Verwood, Puddletown and Milton Abbas are finding ways to connect people to support that goes far beyond the surgery. They are doing this without consistent funding, without systematic support, and without the cross-sector alignment to make it sustainable. They deserve an MP who will fight to back them.

Ring-fenced investment in neighbourhood health would mean that every part of North Dorset - the Vale, Blandford, Crane Valley, and the southern and western fringe - gets the consistent, community-based care its residents deserve. It would mean the transformation already beginning here can be made to last.

Better health, wherever you live

Back Gary's campaign calling for NHS Dorset to ringfence funding for neighbourhood health and wellbeing across North Dorset