We ask Clacton's General Election candidates: What needs to be done to tackle Tendring's GP shortage?

David Grace (Liberal Democrats):

Every politician, except some in Ukip, say he or she supports the NHS and will provide what is needed. Given the difficulty of obtaining a doctor’s appointment locally, the shortage of doctors and the threat of closure to our Minor Injuries Unit, it is not surprising that people have little trust in such support. Expressions of support are easy unless the money is there to back them up. 
The Liberal Democrats have worked out how to pay for health and social care and are proposing one extra penny on Income Tax which will raise an extra £6 billion. On the doorstep I find that most people in Clacton think that’s a pretty good idea. So does former NHS chief executive David Nicholson. 
Our aim is to bring together health and social care services, helping people at home and in the community, not just in hospital. 
The Tories have cut social care funding and proposed using people’s life savings – the dementia tax – when they get ill. We will cap the cost of care for the elderly because that’s right and fair, not because of a last-minute change of mind like Theresa May.

Nick Martin (Independent):

The GP shortage in Tendring is part of a nation-wide issue that must be addressed in both the short-term and long-term. 
In the short term there needs to be an efficient allocation of the resources available, it could mean borrowing and lending GPs between neighbouring areas or making use of “in-training GPs” under supervision. 
In the long-term the government must invest in increasing the number of GPs nationally while enticing them to remain in the UK rather than taking the skill abroad. Local and national services are being affected by a shortage of trained staff and funding. 
Clacton Hospital and its Minor Injuries Unit is a vital asset to the local community, many of whom are elderly and may not be able to easily travel to Colchester. 
To protect it I intend to work with the hospital’s management, and the local and national authorities to argue its importance and use my skills in finance to present financially viable options for its future. 
I also want to address the local shortage of NHS dentists causing long waiting times at the ones we have left. In the long-term I want to assess practical ways of reforming operations and financing for the NHS.

Paul Oakley (Ukip):

THE Conservatives have been running down your NHS for many years and Jeremy Hunt has presided over a shortage of 28 doctors locally. One clear solution is to expand medical teaching facilities to produce more GPs, perhaps in Chelmsford. And many Clacton surgeries are housed in outdated buildings going back to the Thirties.

Ukip will argue for them to be replaced with modern facilities which are fit for the 21s century, including one-stop-shops with attached pharmacies.

The minor injuries unit remains under threat. The Conservative government’s options are to shut down the Colchester, Harwich and Clacton facilities, alternatively to establish a new unit for Tendring and Colchester, or, to do nothing, and leave the MIU in its current woeful condition.

The future of the Clacton facility was due to have been decided on 30 May and Ukip believes the plain and obvious answer is to upgrade it. But the Clinical Commissioning Group has now confirmed the decision is deliberately being postponed until after the election on June 8. Expect bad news. And expect Ukip to fight it.

Natasha Osben (Labour):

The shortage of GPs in Tendring is a direct result of chronic underfunding within our NHS. The cost of studying means many of our young people are put off of pursuing a medical career, and poor treatment of junior doctors, who have been forced into unfair and unsafe contracts, will prevent many qualified doctors progressing up to the level of General Practitioner; we have many doctors leaving the country to find work abroad where they will be paid and treated more fittingly and in contracts that enable them to practice safely. 
This shortage of new doctors and difficulty with retention, paired with ageing GPs retiring, means we simply do not have enough GPs to fill the demand in our area. 
Labour’s policies of bringing in a National Education Service, making education more accessible and allowing people to reach their full potential, and also fully funding and renationalising the NHS, ensuring that doctors get a fair and safe deal will tackle the problems that are leading to our shortage of GPs as outlined above.
The Conservatives have made relentless cuts to our NHS over the past seven years, which has led to services being taken away from Clacton hospital and sold to private health companies.
Labour will renationalise the NHS and fully fund our health service, allowing us to retain and restore the services being run out of Clacton hospital.

Caroline Shearer (Independent):

Our doctors are nearly full to capacity. In fact, you may be very unlikely to get to see your doctor and will alternatively be seen by just a locum.
More surgeries are needed and in my suggestion, the companies that are building housing estates should have a duty of care to erect surgeries decrease the pressure off of the current surgeries that are already in place.
Surely, the current surgeries are only built for the capacity of the town and there is no way of expansion within these. Our minor injuries department must be fought for and argued that Colchester with its new 20,000 new house being erected is already going to cause a huge impact on Colchester General Hospital.
Due to this our minor injuries unit in Clacton is essential, not only for the locals but also our tourists that visit in the high season. We do not need to be travelling a 20-plus-mile round trip.

Chris Southall (Green):

Our NHS and social care services are in a mess caused by underfunding from the government and exacerbated by our ageing population. 
These are national problems that need national solutions. 
The health minister Jeremy Hunt has chosen to attack junior doctors forcing them to work beyond their capacity against their will. 
Doctors become over stressed and leave the profession. 3,400 nursing posts are vacant in the East of England and yet the government has cut training grants for nurses and midwives and capped their pay.
Green party policy is for smaller local hospitals, birthing and minor injury units which are easier for patients and visitors to access. We would provide free training bursaries for all students. 
Restricting access to doctors and nurses from other countries with a hard Brexit will make matters worse. We should be training our own doctors and nurses and treating them well. 
Relying on trained professionals from abroad robs other countries of the expertise needed for their own people. We oppose privatisation in the NHS which diverts NHS funds to private companies. 
We would increase the funding for mental health services. Greens want an NHS to be proud of and are prepared to pay for it.

Robin Tilbrook (English Democrats):

It isn’t only the lack of GPs in Clacton but the lack of overall health services being offered that needs improving. GPs don’t work alone but work in practices as part of much wider teams that includes nurses, receptionists and administrators. 
GPs also work closely with mental health services, the Clacton General and the Minor injury Unit. Closure of any one of these services will impact on the others. The English Democrats highlight the lack of government funding because parts of Clacton are some of the most deprived areas in the UK experiencing long-standing health inequalities. 
So, first and foremost, Clacton’s health services need extra funding! 
This would enable the wider health support teams to recruit more health professionals, which in turn would reduce the pressure on GP practices and make Clacton a more attractive a place to work in. As MP for Clacton, I will force the government to give Clacton the attention it deserves.
Just imagine what we could accomplish if we had the equivalent funding as Scotland. That  would mean an extra £352,011,600 to spend on improving Clacton’s overall health services. Extra funding would help GPs have longer consultations with their patients with properly staffed health services in support.

Giles Watling (Conservative):

There is no shortage of doctors in the East of England. More than 1,226 have been attracted over the past few years. The difficulty seems to be in getting them to become GPs in our coastal towns.  It would seem the lifestyles offered by the big cities and the interesting and varied medical challenges there are drawing them away from us.
It is a matter of fact we have an increasingly elderly population and that a great deal of our medical care is geriatric. Perhaps this doesn’t attract. It goes without saying that you can’t force people to work in our district, in the past we have offered substantial premiums to attract GPs to no real effect. The answer, I believe, lies in regeneration. We need to change what we are. 
We need to attract enterprise and create jobs, which in turn will bring younger, aspirational families who will enjoy our unique countryside and coast. We need to expand our cultural offer - art galleries, theatre and music. In short we need to make Tendring a place people will want to be, offering a rich and varied lifestyle. 
We need to create a state of the art health hub to which GPs will be attracted long term so that the doctor we see is a familiar face. We can only do all of this if we create the wealth to make it happen. 
A strong NHS depends on a strong economy which we will only get if we get the Brexit deal right - and for that we need to give Theresa May the strongest mandate.