Rural health services need ‘levelling up’, MPs say

Local Gov reports that a three-year investigation undertaken by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Rural Health and Care and the National Centre for Rural Health and Care has found stark levels of inequality between rural and urban areas when it comes to health and social care services

The Inquiry highlighted that those living in rural or coastal communities – around a fifth of England’s population – have poorer access to health and social care services than those living in towns and cities despite the ‘social duty to promote equality’ embodied in the NHS Constitution.

The evidence found that one of the major obstacles to ensuring that rural health and social care services are on a par with those delivered in urban areas is a shortage of good quality data.

What the APPG calls ‘inappropriate data collection methods’ in rural areas has resulted in these places being underfunded, and as a result of a lack of sufficient funds, rural local authorities are forced to spend a disproportionately higher share of their budget on these services with local council taxpayers having to fund more costs than their urban counterparts.

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Local Gov - Rural health services need ‘levelling up’, MPs say