Marie Goldman is leading the fight for more local doctors
Last year, Marie pushed forward funding from Chelmsford City Council for an expansion and refurbishment at the Sutherland Lodge GP practice. The Lib Dem-led City Council in Chelmsford successfully pushed for a new GP practice to be included in the Warren Farm development and are encouraging the NHS to get involved at an early stage in planning applications so developers can be forced to build new medical facilities alongside new homes.
But medical care is about more than just buildings. We also need the doctors to staff them. In the last few years both Dickens' Place and Wood Street GP surgeries have closed, and the buildings lie empty still.
Train More Doctors
Essex needs to train 300 extra GPs a year just to cope with retirements and growing demand. Chelmsford's Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) has an excellent medical school - but it only trains 100 doctors a year at the moment. Marie Goldman and Chelmsford Lib Dems have been calling for the government to fund 300 training places a year at ARU, to help ensure that in the future, every resident can see a doctor when they need to.