As part of the council-run Health & Wellbeing Board, the director of Place for Swindon at the regional Bath, Swindon & Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, Gordon Muvuti was challenged by ward member for Wroughton & Wichelstowe, Councillor Gayle Cook.
She said: “In Wichelstowe there are about 6,000 houses, and there’s no GP surgery. It means there are 15,000 people registered with Wroughton Health Centre where there are eight doctors.
“The guidance is that there should be about 1,000 patients per GP.”
Cllr Cooke added later that she thought the doctors at the surgery were very good, but overstretched, and said there was land available for a medical centre, with plans approved.
She told the meeting: “We just can’t get any information from the ICB. We don’t know what’s going on.”
Her colleague, Councillor Lawrence Elliott added: “Just one ward over, in Old Town and East Wichel is also something of a desert. I think the whole of that southern part of the town is very poorly served.”
Mr Muvuti said: “People do need access to GPs, of course, but sometimes that’s not the issue. Some access to primary care issues would not be solved by more GP surgeries.
“We need to work with the council on the neighbourhood health plans to make sure people can access the services they need.”
The borough council’s chief executive, Sam Mowbray, asked: “What can we at the council do to try and get more movement, to speed this up?
“There is a lot of feedback about the lack of primary care here.”
This was echoed by Amritpal Kaur of patients’ advocacy group Healthwatch who said: “There is a significant risk in poor access to primary care, it can lead to things like late diagnosis.”
Mr Muvuti said both the ICB and the council needed to work out what “unanswered questions there are. And to work out whether that’s for the ICB to answer of the council.”
Heeding a warning from Cllr Elliott about not “kicking the can down the road,” Ms Mowbray and Mr Muvuti agreed to work together to try and get clarity on what more information was needed, to try and resolve the issue and address the needs for GP practices and primary care, especially in Wichelstowe.