Stephen Morgan MP has said the government is ‘failing’ local NHS services after NHS England figures have shown that 18% of patients in Hampshire and Isle of Wight cannot get an appointment to see a GP.
Meanwhile, data from the NHS reveals that in the past year, 33,636 patients with GP appointments were forced to wait over a month, as patients struggle to see a GP when they need one.
In June alone, 145,132 appointments were held a month late in the South East.
When the Conservatives entered government in 2010, they scrapped the guarantee of a GP appointment within 48 hours.
Over the twelve years of Conservative government since then, public satisfaction with GP services has fallen by 39 percentage points – from 77 per cent in Labour’s last year in government, to just 38 per cent now, the lowest level since the survey began in 1983.
The Government has admitted it is failing to meet its manifesto pledge to recruit more GPs. Under the Conservatives, the number of GPs is falling and hundreds of GP practices have closed since the 2019 general election. As a result, many ‘GP appointments’ held today are not with a GP.
A BBC Panorama investigation in June found that unqualified staff at Operose Health practices, the UK’s largest GP chain, are seeing patients without the required supervision, instead of doctors.
Wes Streeting MP, Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, said:
“Patients are finding it impossible to get a GP appointment when they need one.
“The Conservatives have closed hundreds of practices since the 2019 election and are breaking their manifesto promise to hire more GPs.
“Labour will recruit and retain the staff the NHS needs to treat patients on time.”
The Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, said:
“I hear from concerned constituents who are struggling to see a GP in Portsmouth because this Government is failing to staff our health service.
“We need more GPs, but the Conservatives have once again over-promised and under-delivered.
“People in Portsmouth deserve a Labour government that will give the NHS what it needs to see people on time, not more of the same from the Conservatives.”
The Portsmouth MP 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.
