Robert Knowles voiced his concerns regarding health inequalities in Waverley which he claimed “were not being addressed”, at a meeting of the full council last week.
It followed an almost 200-page report of a special group, the community well-being overview and scrutiny committee on the factors affecting health inequalities in Waverley.
Mr Knowles claimed this week: “Health services in Surrey seem like a two tiered service between north Surrey and the rest.
“In Haslemere, there is an excellent GP surgery and the only minor injuries unit, (MIU), in the borough.”
But he told the council the MIU only operated from 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday, not due to lack of demand, but because the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), would not fund additional hours, which which of course would take pressure off the A&E at Guildford.
Mr Knowles claimed the intention of the CCG when it replaced NHS Surrey was to benefit a local need.
But he said: “It seems CCGs in Surrey are dominated by North West Surrey CCG and it is little different to NHS Surrey which was based in Leatherhead.”
He made a comparison between Weybridge in the north of the county, within 15 miles of seven acute hospitals, most with A&Es and Haslemere which has just one, the Royal Surrey Hospital, in Guildford, within the same distance, – St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester, is 21 miles in the opposite direction.
“Hardly equality of acute healthcare,” declared Mr Knowles.
“Ambulance response times are still very poor in the rural south of the borough, and we know that stroke care was relocated from Guildford to Frimley, a remote location with congested roads and bad transport links, and there is an urgent need for us to retain and support services at the Royal Surrey.”
But he said taking into account the good points made by the report, Mr Knowles believed it was ‘time to address the elephant in the room’ and for the council to “put pressure on partner organisations and stand up for our residents and address the inequality of acute care in Surrey, which affects us particularly”.
The work of those responsible for the report was praised by Jenny Else, Tory councillor for Elstead.
She said: “It’s the most in-depth review ever undertaken of health inequalities in Surrey, and it’s a good start.
“It’s a big subject but I think the work they did covered quite a large area of health inequalities and that’s not to say that’s the end of the work, I hope it will be going onward.
“We will strengthen our partnership links and it’s a good time to look at how we can work together with our partners to improve health and well-being of our residents.”