This afternoon I had the pleasure of cutting the ribbon on the refurbished Gants Hill Medical Centre.

The new reception area is bright, welcoming and spacious – providing a much better place for patients to arrive and wait to see their GP, nurse, pharmacist or health worker.

What I was really struck by is how much Dr Mughal and the team really value their Patient Participation Group – genuinely involving patients in the work of the surgery.

I recognise that getting timely access to see a GP in Redbridge is a big challenge. We have one of the worst GP to patient ratios in London, putting considerable pressure on practices. This is a priority for me – I regularly raise this issue with Ministers in the House of Commons and with the Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Group.

I will continue to campaign for better GP access and for the funding that GP practices need, but it was nice today to be able to celebrate some great improvements at one of our local surgeries.