Folkestone GP crisis - Public meeting
Kent Live is reporting live from the GP crisis public meeting tonight at Folkestone Railway Social Club in Canterbury Road. The meeting was called by 2017 Labour candidate Laura Davison to highlight the problem of Folkestone’s residents being left without a GP. Around 5,000 patients risk being left without a GP after Folkestone East Practice in Dover Road announced it would stop operating at the start of November. The crisis deepened when seven additional GP surgeries announced they would no longer be announcing new patients and that patients would have to apply to the CCG to be allocated a practice. Both the NHS South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group, the body which decides how NHS services are provided in the area, and Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins were invited to the meeting but neither will be in attendance. Mr Collins said he will be meeting with the CCG tomorrow to discuss the issue.
Sean Doherty