Stephen Morgan MP called on the Prime Minister to explain why he has scrapped plans to recruit an additional 6,000 GPs by 2024, which would have benefited Portsmouth.
It comes following reports that after 13 years of Conservative failure, 2,000 GPs have been cut, with 2.8 million patients experiencing their practice closing down or merging in the last 5 years.
No where is this felt more acutely than Portsmouth, which has the lowest number of GPs per head of population than anywhere else across the country. Nuffield Trust analysis revealed there are just 39 practicing GPs caring for every 100,000 people in Portsmouth.
Standing up for patients in Portsmouth, Stephen Morgan MP asked the Prime Minister:
“The Government ditching its pledge to recruit 6,000 more GPs is yet another example of the Tories over-promising and under-delivering.
With teacher recruitment targets missed and housing pledges shelved, why does the Prime Minister think the only target he has actually met was the loss of 1,000 Tory Councilors last week?”
Under Labour’s plans, 15,000 doctors a year would be trained, and medical school places would be doubled.
The Labour Party has pledged to build an NHS fit for the future by reforming health and care services to speed up treatment, harnessing life sciences and technology to reduce preventable illness, and cutting health inequalities.
Commenting Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan said:
“Portsmouth is paying the price for the Government’s failure to fix the crisis in recruitment and retention of GPs.
Time and time again I hear from constituents how difficult it has become to get a GP appointment.
That’s why I’m calling on the Government to take the GP shortage seriously and adopt Labour’s plan to recruit 15,000 doctors a year”
Wes Streeting MP, responding to the Government’s announcement on moving some GP services to pharmacies, said:
“Rishi Sunak is completely out of touch with the problems facing patients and the NHS. He has no plan to address the shortage of GPs, or to reverse the cut in the number of doctors trained every year.
The Conservatives’ announcement is merely tinkering at edges, in contrast to the fundamental reform the NHS needs and Labour is offering.
Labour will abolish the non-dom tax status to train an extra 7,500 doctors and 10,000 nurses every year, so patients are seen on time again.”
You can view the city MP’s question and the Prime Minister’s response here.
Mr Morgan has taken a range of actions to help improve access to Portsmouth’s NHS services, including raising concerns with regional health leaders about local GP practice closures, worked alongside campaigners calling for more GP practices to open in the city and holding ministers to account in Parliament on their failure to recruit the GPs and staff the NHS needs.
