A councillor has called for free housing for GPs on the Marsh to deal with the chronic shortage of doctors.

Romney Marsh surgeries are overwhelmed, and the problem will worsen when Dymchurch Surgery closes.

Now David Evans, of New Romney Town Council, wants health services to strike a deal with developers to provide free accommodation to attract new doctors into the area.

He had first raised the matter at a health services meeting, asking officials: “With 1,500 houses being built between Hythe and New Romney, we’re very concerned about GP services on the Romney Marsh.

“Can a free house be offered to a GP? What could you do regarding the lack of GPs?”
Cllr Evans was speaking at the South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group meeting at the Hythe Imperial Hotel on Wednesday last week.

He also stressed that the ageing population was also a worry, with more and more people needing access.

Karen Benbow, chief operating officers for the clinical commissioning group, told him: “You’re not far from the truth when you say about working with developers.

“I don’t know where we are in terms of contributing.”

Dr Darren Cocker, the CCG’s clinical chairman, said: “The problem is national, and unfortunately this part of the world doesn’t attract GPs as quickly as others. It’s not going away at any time soon.”

Cllr Evans this week told Kent Online that he got the idea from the time he had been a parent governor at his daughters school in Putney, west London, in the 1990s.
There had been a difficulty in finding science and maths teachers so arrangements were made for special accommodation to be provided on a peppercorn rent.

He now suggests free housing provided on any of the planned developments on the Marsh, such as the 275 homes being planned for the Cockreed Lane area of New Romney.

Cllr Evans is also a St Mary’s Bay parish councillor and planning permission has been given for 85 homes on the village’s former Sands Holiday Motel at Dymchurch Road. But the original plans for a doctor’s surgery there fell through.

He believes that offering the free housing is justified even though GPs have way above average salaries.

NHS figures from this April show that they have a range between £55,412 and £83,617.
Cllr Evans said: “You have to look at the broader picture. We very badly need GPs in the area.”

A survey by New Romney Town Council revealed that patients at the town’s Church Lane Surgery had to wait two to three weeks for an appointment.

The problem is expected to worsen with the expected closure of the sister Dymchurch Surgery, at Orgarswick Avenue, in November. GP Robert Cullen is retiring and no replacement has been found.

It means that patients will have to further crowd into Church Lane or register with the Martello practice in Dymchurch.

The study also found that New Romney and the surrounding area has a higher-than-average ageing population with 3,189 people out of 8,983 being 60-plus, which is 35.5%.
This is in the face of an expected rise in population in the town through development such as at Cockreed Lane.

More than 1,000 homes are also planned for the Nickolls Quarry site in Hythe.

New Romney Town Council has repeatedly raised concerned about lack of healthcare provision on the Marsh. Just last month it wrote to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt about the closure of the chemotherapy unit at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital and the lack of local services such as a walk-in clinic.

This is against the wider problem of the long distances local people have to travel for hospital treatment, sometimes without a car and on limited public transport.