A General Election candidate says Liberal Democrat proposals to ensure people can see a GP more quickly will be welcomed by voters.
The party has unveiled a manifesto pledge to ensure residents will be able to see a doctor within a week – or 24 hours if their appointment is urgent.
Paul Ray, who will represent the Lib Dems on 4th July, said the Conservatives had “abandoned local health services”.
He added that lengthy waiting lists for appointments were not fair on local communities.
“We know too well how difficult it is to see a GP in our own area.
“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 whilst waiting to see their GP.
“It should not be too much to ask for patients to be able to see their GP when they need to. That is why I and the Liberal Democrats have committed to a fair deal for this community’s patients and legal right to see a GP within a week.”
Paul Ray
The Lib Dems say the improvements would be funded by increasing the number of GPs and freeing up their time by giving more prescribing rights to qualified pharmacists, nurse practitioners and paramedics.
Seven candidates will stand in the Lichfield constituency:
- Sir Michael Fabricant – Conservatives
- Richard Howard – Reform UK
- Pete Longman – Independent
- John Madden – Independent
- Heather McNeillis – Green Party
- Paul Ray – Liberal Democrats
- Dave Robertson – Labour
Pity you did not get involved before they shut the health centre in Burntwood, before anything else is put in place.
Greenwood health centre as now got 23,000 patients, how are you going to put that right.
No party seems to care
Follow the money! How about tax breaks for people who use private GP’s and Consultants? Pay for this by clawing back private appoinment costs from the local GP’s that failed to deliver enough appointments, or who dumped work that they have previously been paid to provide on the poor nurses at the Samuel Johnson Hospital Minor injuries unit! The nurses there are sick of being taken advantage of. The Reform party will sort this out. No other party have a clue. The sacred-cow-NHS is a joke! Countries elsewhere would never settle for such diabolical service.
According to the Telegraph Brexit is a “national tragedy”. They forgot that they supported it. If you would like lower food and gas prices then we have to join the Single Market and remove those costly trade barriers. Something only the LibDems are prepared to do. But then they don’t put a selfish damaging ideology ahead of the public good like the Tories and Reform do.
John Davis.
By 2024 the UK has ended up with an economy 5% smaller than would have been the case had we not subjected ourselves to the folly that is Brexit.. The annual amount of GDP that has been foregone is £100bn – that represents lost economic activity that would have given us £40bn in tax receipts.
There you have it, Brexit has cost us more than Covid. A global pande4mic is only half as bad for a country as Brexit.
Reality will have to knock on the doors of our political parties, if not at this election then at the next.
John Davis, Professor Pineapple, where in this news item is Brexit mentioned ?
Give it a rest for heavens sake!!
There is a disconnect between the electorate and those who purport to represent them. Both at local and national level. Whatever the motivations of our institutions they seem far removed from our understanding of democracy. All parties, including this candidate, will promise anything to obtain the power often for their own ends. Public services are deteriorating at an alarming rate while taxes are at an all time high.
This is a feature of many countries with France and Italy moving to far right politics as a result.
Make no mistake we need radical reform to reinstate our politics to reflect the hopes and needs of the general population.
More inclusive democracy would be to make all votes in Parliament ‘free votes’ which would give all Mps a more representative input of the constituencies that elected them.
Brexit is a big factor in the decline of our NHS and social care nationally and locally. The loss of staff from EU countries has been a real blow to recruitment. As for training British doctors, plenty trained at EU medical schools before Brexit – avoiding crippling UK student debts. Now the Tories have rejected an offer from the EU to reinstate free movement for young Brits to study in 27 EU countries.
Brexit red tape also means problems with the supply of vital medicines, and access to treatment abroad is more restricted too – a serious issue for British expats.
The promise of 350 million extra a week for the NHS was a lie.Remember the Brexit propaganda with the old lady queuing in A&E before Brexit and not queuing after Brexit?
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/nhs-brexit-nurses-strikes-advert-b2260214.html
We can’t tackle the problems in our healthcare without tackling the disaster that is Brexit too.
Well, an obvious way to increase access to GPs is to get rid of the insane 8am rush for appointments, and go back to the old system whereby you could ring twice a day, book online twice a day, or book appointments in advance. That would surely spread the load. It would also help if most GPs worked full-time. It was reported recently that a large proportion of doctors graduating in August will have no jobs to go to due to the ridiculous funding system that prevents surgeries from taking on the extra GPs that are so desperately needed. Sort these problems out and we might start getting somewhere about the parlous state of the NHS. Parties are quick to promise improvements but slow to address the real problems and put some meat on the bones of their manifestos.