Closed petition Increase funding for NHS services in rural areas

Closed on 7 August 2023

We want the Government to increase funding for NHS services in rural communities, like Lincolnshire, where there are almost 800,000 residents, but only 2 A&Es, and poor transport links.

Many rural health providers struggle to provide local and timely healthcare.

It is more challenging to provide NHS services in rural communities. A number of factors contribute to unavoidable costs for providing health care in rural areas. They include:

- difficulties in staff recruitment and retention, and higher overall staff costs
- higher staff travel costs and unproductive staff time
- difficulties in realising economies of scale while adequately serving sparsely populated areas

Given these issues, the Government should increase funding for NHS services in rural areas.