Labour calls for GP guarantee

LABOUR MP Debbie Abrahams has launched a petition calling for a guarantee patients will receive a doctor’s appointment within 48 hours. She has already started collecting signatures from supporters of the campaign in Oldham town centre.

LABOUR MP Debbie Abrahams has launched a petition calling for a guarantee patients will receive a doctor’s appointment within 48 hours.

She has already started collecting signatures from supporters of the campaign in Oldham town centre.

The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP said: “I spend a great deal of time meeting local people. Something I hear more and more about is the NHS and people telling me it’s getting harder to see the family doctor.

“David Cameron scrapped Labour’s guarantee of an appointment within 48 hours and now 60 per cent of patients say they can’t see their GP within two days.

“As our shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said recently, we are four years on from the Government’s promises to put GPs at the heart of the NHS and the Royal College of GPs are now saying that the profession has been brought to its knees.

“The Government’s reorganisation which promised to empower GPs has proved an abject failure on its own terms.

“GP morale is at its lowest ever level, many are retiring early from the profession in despair, and services are in crisis.”

She added that Labour would guarantee a GP appointment within 48 hours and on the same day for those who need it.