A five-year plan to give patients in Fenland a right to see their GP within a week or 24 hours if in urgent need will be in the Liberal Democrat General Election manifesto the party has announced.
David Chalmers, who is representing the party in the North East Cambridgeshire ward, alleged: “This Conservative government had “abandoned local health services” and called for a ‘fair deal for this community’s patients’.”
Last year 1,113,854 appointments in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire took longer than two weeks to happen, equating to 17.8% of appointments. This included a staggering 347,849 which took longer than a month, 5.6% of all appointments.
The number of disturbingly long waits in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire has been getting worse. In 2022, there were 775,623 over two weeks, or 13.9% of all appointments. Last year this shot up drastically to 1,113,854 or 17.8% of all appointments.
Liberal Democrats claim their plans, announced at the end of last month will mean every patient will have the right to see their GP in seven days.
They have promised under their plans, patients will no longer be left waiting for an appointment and risk their conditions getting worse.
The party claim they will deliver the plan by:
\- Increasing the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 8,000, half by boosting recruitment and half from retaining more experienced GPs.
\- Freeing up GPs’ time by giving more prescribing rights and public health advisory services to qualified pharmacists, nurse practitioners and paramedics.
\- Introducing a universal 24/7 GP booking system.
\- Removing top-down bureaucracy to let practices hire the staff they need and invest in training.
\- Fenland Liberal Democrats claimed this Conservative government had “abandoned local health services” and called for a “fair deal for this community’s patients.
David said: “This Conservative government has driven our area’s local health services into the ground. Thousands of patients in our area are facing agonisingly long waits, often in terrible pain while waiting to see their GP.
“The Conservative party have proven themselves totally unfit to run our NHS. They have abandoned local health services and it is patients bearing the brunt of their neglect.
“It should not be too much to ask for patients to be able to see their GP when they need to. That is why the Liberal Democrats have committed to a fair deal for this community’s patients and legal right to see a GP within a week.”
