On 23rd February 2023, the House of Lords considered the topic of Healthcare in Rural Areas as part of a short debate

Proposed by Baroness McIntosh of Pickering, the full text of the Hansard debate is available at this link

Baroness McIntosh highlighted some key issues facing rural health care delivery in her opening statement including:

• 5th of population live in remote rural and coastal communities, is the policy tool of rural proofing used by the department and NHS England?
• Similarly, last year the All-Party Group on Rural Health and Social Care published a report that has a wealth of recommendations on how to improve the provision of services to patients. It has to be asked: why have the Government failed to act on any of its recommendations?
• There are barriers such as poor connectivity for both broadband and mobile signals, how widely is it known that electronic prescription services cannot be delivered in rural areas by dispensing doctors for this very reason? Similar remote consultations to patients and other telehealth innovations are unable to be delivered
• Equality of access was reflected in the more recent NHS constitution. As I referred to earlier, the APPG report on rural health called for levelling up between rural and urban areas and removing impediments in rural areas such as lack of workforce capacity and poorer access through inadequate transport, leading to the inequalities of outcomes for patients which it identified.

She finished by adding:

"I urge my noble friend the Minister to use his good offices, through today’s debate, to address the issues before us; to ensure delivery of universal healthcare across the country, delivering in rural as well as urban areas; and to reduce the health inequalities for those of us who live in rural areas."

The Rural Services Network was also quoted in the debate twice by the Lord Bishop of St Albans:

"The Rural Services Network has found that rural residents receive 14% per head less in social care support overall. I therefore ask the Minister what assessment he has made of the gap in social care funding between our urban and our rural areas. Will His Majesty’s Government take any steps to close it?

It is not just social care that suffers from lower levels of funding. The Rural Services Network also noted that the NHS receives less funding per resident in rural areas despite the unique challenges that they face. With an older population, higher levels of mental health problems, issues with connectivity and poor access to services, it is clear that those areas need more support, not less."

Lord Evans of Rainow closed the debate with the following:

"I pay tribute to the NHS and social care services across England for their work. They deliver excellent care now and did so throughout the pandemic. The country is rightly proud of them. We absolutely recognise the importance of ensuring that the challenges faced by rural areas are given due diligence and consideration. These areas face a different range of challenges from those of the NHS in more urban or suburban areas and it is right that we give the systems the flexibility to respond to them."