UNDER-PRESSURE GP surgeries in Teignbridge have coped with nearly 1,000 new homes each across the district in the last decade, new figures reveal.

Now Newton Abbot’s Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley is backing a plan to ‘hold developers’ feet to the fire’ and ensure that all new developments in the area come with new or expanded doctors’ surgeries.

An extra 939 homes have been added for each GP surgery in Teignbridge since 2015 – and increase of almost 25 per cent.

Lib Dem analysis also shows that 1,300 surgeries have closed across the country over the same period.

Mr Wrigley said he wanted new or expanded surgeries to be up and running in areas of new development as soon as the first homes are sold.

This is part of the party’s proposed infrastructure-first approach to development.

Developers in Teignbridge would be required to not only fund new facilities but also to guarantee the GP surgery contract – or the cost of salaried GPs – while new residents are still moving in.

This would ensure new residents don’t have to turn to over-stretched existing GPs.

‘There has never been a worse time to be a patient in Devon, with health services overstretched and NHS targets routinely missed,’ said Mr Wrigley.

'Our area badly needs investment in local services, including GPs, to cut waiting times and get people the care they desperately need.

‘In communities across the country such as ours, when new housing is built, GPs are promised but not delivered, and this must end.

‘Councils and local communities should be given the powers to hold developers’ feet to the fire and demand the local doctors’ surgeries we so badly need.

‘That’s why I’m launching a campaign to get our local NHS back on track, by building and delivering the services our communities need and ensuring new homes always go hand in hand with more GPs.’