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Farming Today: Rural health, Lib Dem rural policy, Goat contraceptives

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06/10/2014

Rural health, Lib Dem rural policy, Goat contraceptives

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Rural health, Lib Dem rural policy, Goat contraceptives

Farming Today embarks on a week of programmes exploring the issues in rural healthcare.

A look at the claims that rural healthcare is facing a 'perfect storm', with existing healthcare access problems made worse by a shortage of GPs prepared to work in rural areas.

Rural healthcare is facing a major crisis, according to a GP with thirty years experience in a rural practice, who now chairs the rural health working party for the World Organisation of Family Doctors. At the start of a week looking at issues facing healthcare in rural areas, Charlotte Smith asks him what the problems are, and what can be done to try and tackle them.

As the Liberal Democrats meet in Glasgow for their Autumn conference, Charlotte talks to Dan Rogerson MP, the Defra minister responsible for water, forestry, rural affairs and resource management. She asks about Liberal Democrat rural policies.

And how to stop goats having more kids? Give them contraceptives, of course! We report from a project in Devon which is giving contraceptives to nanny goats, in order to control their numbers. Experts say the current goat population in the Valley of Rocks in North Devon is about twice the size that the landscape can support.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Campbell.

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