Rural health policy challenged in Parliament

Cross bench peer Lord Kakkar has challenged the Government to consider rural health outcomes in rural policymaking.

In a debate on Farming and Rural Communities, Lord Kakkar said that the impact of policy on health outcomes is frequently neglected, and that in rural communities, health outcomes differ.

He said: “There is an assumption that because the countryside is beautiful and people can get out and about, they will in general be healthier and live longer. But there are substantial disparities in outcomes. We have heard of the higher suicide rate experienced in farming communities … disparities in other health outcomes and, importantly, inequalities in access to healthcare facilities.”

Chief among the rural challenges are that pharmacies in rural locations frequently have less stock of medicinal products, forcing individuals to travel much longer distances to get their medicines. In addition, only two in five (43%) rural people live within half an hour’s walk of a general practice or primary care facility, compared with some 95 per cent of urban populations.

He also noted that over half (51%) of rural populations live over an hour’s travel distance from their closest hospital, compared with only 8 per cent of urban populations.

Concluding, he said that NHS transformation should apply equitably in rural as well as urban locations.

Also taking part in the debate was DDA adviser Baroness Mcintosh who confirmed the inequality in access to healthcare, housing and transport in rural areas.

In response, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab) said: “Access to health [is] a fundamental part of the discussions that we are having."

Separately, dispensing GPs’ contribution to access to medicines in rural areas has been acknowledged in a written answer from health minister Stephen Kinnock.

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