It’s been seven months since my election here in North Shropshire and to say it’s been busy would be an understatement.
Like all MPs I spend some of my time in Parliament, where my main focus has been working to find solutions to the key crises I get contacted about the most: health, transport and the cost of living.
But as much time as possible is spent here in the constituency, where I meet as many people as I can and campaign on local issues like Whitchurch’s Driving Test Centre closure and the forced move of Gobowen All Rounders Nursery near Oswestry.
There’s been lots of positives, like the nursery finding a new home and long-overdue progress on making Whitchurch Train Station step-free, but much more work is to be done.
While Boris Johnson’s resignation is welcome, unfortunately the chaos surrounding it is bad news with regards to the Government performing its one key function: governing.
The mass resignation of ministers has led to a paralysis in many departments where newly-appointed MPs are suddenly scrambling to understand an issue they’ve little experience of.
This is the case in the Health Department. After months of campaigning, questions and correspondence we had recently finally started to get some positive engagement on Shropshire’s health crisis. However now we have a new Health Secretary and the Minister who was due to come and witness our problems is no longer in Government.
Meanwhile issues accessing GP appointments, scans, ambulances and emergency care in North Shropshire have continued to get worse. A critical incident was declared at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust last week, which is particularly worrying because it’s summer when pressure on hospitals is normally lower.
Despite regularly claiming to care about ‘Levelling Up’, the Government have shown very little interest in rural areas like North Shropshire and I’m not sure how they can understand our problems from their offices in Whitehall. I have urged the new team to come and see us as soon as possible so this can change.
Whoever is in power I will continue to engage with them constructively because finding solutions to our health and cost of living crises is far more important than any political rivalry.
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