Cllr/Dr Chandra Kanneganti
Prospective Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Stoke-on-Trent CentralCouncillor and Ex-Lord Mayor, Stoke-on-Trent City
Cllr Kanneganti discusses his plans to place health at the heart of his priorities as the Conservative candidate for Stoke-on-Trent.
Arriving in the UK as a newly qualified doctor in April 2002, with just £1,000 in my pocket, I relied on discounted food and the generosity of the people I met to get by before getting my first job in the NHS – later becoming a GP and practice partner in Stoke-on-Trent in 2006. My own personal experience, and the experiences of others I witnessed first-hand as a GP, has highlighted the direct impact of health inequalities in Stoke-on-Trent and the reluctance of some communities to access early support and help from the NHS. Good health is about more than physical wellbeing – it dictates our ability to learn, to work and to live full, happy lives.
My priority will be to ensure residents have access to services within their local community; providing health testing and scanning services to help drive down NHS waiting lists and provide faster access to the essential tests and scans patients desperately need. I will also fight to reduce inequalities by working closely with Staffordshire Integrated Care System for better health outcomes for all.
As local LMC Chair, representing all GPs in Stoke as their leader, I have been making sure Stoke-on-Trent gets its fair deal of funding and has clear actions by the local ICS to reduce the NHS backlog. As a local GP in Stoke-on-Trent, with my practice always in the top three in the National Patient GP survey, I encourage and support other practices in the city to provide timely access to GP appointments to patients who need them.
Drugs damage the health of our high streets
Recent years have seen Stoke-on-Trent become known as the capital of Monkey Dust, a powerful stimulant that sees users become severely psychotic and can be potentially lethal. This cheap and easily accessible drug not only impacts the health of users but destabilizes families and creates anti-social behaviour in our town centres, putting off visitors and taking away valuable income from local businesses. Our high streets and businesses deserve better, and I will work relentlessly to ensure that more police officers are recruited to tackle those who commit crimes and demonstrate anti-social behaviour. Working with neighbouring MPs, I will also back the campaign to re-classify the drug as a Class A drug, bringing the harshest possible sentences to those who make and distribute the drug.
Creating opportunities for a healthier future in Stoke-on-Trent
The decline of the traditional pottery industry within Stoke-on-Trent has impacted the prospects of people across the city, with slow wage growth and limited opportunities for employment holding back the city. It will be central to my plans to ensure more job opportunities are available for local people. Stoke has one of the largest and most influential teaching hospitals in the country. Working with primary care services across Staffordshire, with responsibility for the lives and care of over 1.1million people, new career opportunities are being created that can not only provide well-paid jobs, but can help support our drive to provide quicker, more efficient healthcare to the people of Stoke-on-Trent.
The development of one of the most successful enterprise zones in the country has created over 9,000 high-skilled, well-paid jobs for residents in Stoke-on-Trent. And with 500 new roles available locally with the Home Office and over 1,700 new jobs coming to Chatterley Valley West, more well-paid jobs are on the way to Stoke-on-Trent, providing further opportunities for families to live financially-stable, healthier lives.
Stoke-on-Trent residents gave me the opportunity to be their GP and their councillor, and many of them treated me as their friend and extended member of their family. I wish to repay them their gratitude with my hard work as their MP – making every resident in the city proud to be living in this great city of Stoke-on-Trent.
