Sittingbourne and Sheppey’s new MP says tackling issues surrounding local GP shortages, education opportunities and banking are just a few of the “big changes” he has lined up for the constituency.

Labour’s Kevin McKenna, a qualified nurse, took the key bellwether seat by the slimmest of margins at the general election on July 4.

Speaking on the problems in the area and how he intends to fix them, the Sittingbourne-based politician said: “We've got one of the worst patient-to-GP ratios in the country.

“We've got a massive local shortage of GPs and facilities. What I want to get stuck into is all of the specific local challenges around this.

“It's not as simple as just GP numbers it's about how the whole primary care sector operates and the services that are offered.”

MP McKenna has been part of the NHS workforce since the late nineties.

He’s mostly worked on the front line of healthcare in hospitals, including as a matron at NHS Nightingale London during the pandemic.

He continued: “I use the NHS as a patient as much as I've worked for the NHS.

“You don’t get any special favours, and we're all stuck in the 8am phone queue trying to get an appointment.

“Some of the problems are caused by what the NHS asks of GPs and sometimes it's caused by the infrastructure, and by that I don't just mean the physical surgeries, I mean the individual practices.

“The individual practices are left to fend for themselves and there's quite a lot that we're going to do nationally to solve that but my job is to make sure that we get all the benefits here.”

McKenna says the fact he knows “what’s what” within the NHS will allow him to speak in the right terms and make a “real difference”.

McKenna, who was recently Labour’s London Assembly candidate in Bexley and Bromley, highlighted that there are “big challenges” on the Island, in Sittingbourne, and in the surrounding villages.

He explained: “There are lots of challenges around how people in Sittingbourne can access educational opportunities and particularly vocational training things, that forces people out of the area.

“Sheerness should be the town that anchors the Island and for a place that's got such a fantastic history, unfortunately, for voters I spoke to, there's a sense of hopelessness.

“You're seeing the high street decline because the Island, as a whole, doesn’t actually have a lot of access and transport.”

McKenna explained that a lack of access to banking, due to these issues with public transport and the closure of high street branches, has been another issue highlighted to him.

He said: “We need to get a banking hub for Sheerness, that's something I want to do.

“It is about working with people to understand what they want and then working with Swale council and Kent County Council to come up with an action plan to make sure things happen.

“Something that's also coming to my attention is that people are struggling to access the right education for their kids.

“So, again, I want to make sure I have all the right conversations with not just the education providers, but also with parents and carers to get a handle on what the issues are and what we need to plan.”

McKenna says his first step after the “mad” week he’s had since being elected is to recruit the right people into a team and set up his constituency office.

He concluded: “That's when we're going to start to make some really big changes.

“There are lots of people who need urgent help and I’ll be spending a lot of the next few months getting out to meet all those people I haven’t met in person yet.

“That way I can build an even more detailed picture of what the most important issues that need attention are, and build up a plan for how to tackle them as the MP.”