Labour’s candidate in Lichfield says his party will start to tackle under-investment in health services if they win the General Election.
Dave Robertson will be among seven candidates battling out to be the constituency’s next MP on 4th July.
The Labour councillor said the state of the NHS had been a key talking point for voters he had met on the campaign trail.
“I hear it time and time again – the 8am rush for an appointment, waiting for years for treatment, cancer appointments cancelled or postponed.
“Is it because doctors don’t work hard? No. Is it because patients are making unreasonable demands of the system? Absolutely not. It’s simply down to Conservative mismanagement and underfunding of our health service.”
Dave Robertson
The Labour candidate said statistics from the British Medical Association show that in the last five years GP practices have lost funding worth over £660million, GPs have retired or left the NHS and are not being replaced, and 1,000 surgeries have closed.
He said:
“Labour has a plan – a specific and costed plan – to change the NHS so that it becomes not just a sickness service, but more able to prevent ill heath in the first place.
“The next Labour government will deliver an extra two million NHS operations, scans, and appointments every year. That’s 40,000 more appointments every week and 700,000 more urgent dental appointments, recruiting new dentists to areas that need them most.
“Labour has tried to do what it can while in opposition, including arguing against a Conservative decision not to fund extra GP provision at Samuel Johnson Hospital, but that opportunity like so many opportunities over the last 14 years was lost.
“The next Labour government will put the NHS back on its feet and shift it away from a model geared towards late diagnosis and treatment, to a model where more services are delivered in local communities.”
Dave Robertson
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
