Health Minister Stephen Kinnock says with 1,500 extra GPs recruited since october, the government will ‘make it easier for every patient to hear those words – ‘the doctor will see you now’
This government is on a mission to bring back the family doctor and make it easier everyone to get a GP appointment when they need one.
General practice is the front door to our NHS, but over a decade of neglect has left the service overburdened and understaffed. Too many patients are struggling to even get their foot in the door, with millions waiting more than two weeks to be seen, and fewer GPs working compared to a decade ago.
It’s an agonising process that every Mirror reader will have experienced. Long phone calls on hold in the desperate 8am scramble for appointments, only to be told there is nothing available. And for those lucky enough to get booked in, it’s unlikely they will see a familiar face – with demands so high that appointments are picked up by whichever GP is available.
That’s why it is mind boggling that when we came into government we found there were hundreds of qualified GPs struggling to find a job. So we set an ambitious target to fix this, by recruiting 1,000 new GPs within six months. And today, we can announce that we’ve already gone above and beyond that, bringing in 1,500 new GPs since October.
We made this happen by slashing the unnecessary red tape preventing practices from hiring newly qualified GPs and by providing an extra £82 million in funding so that GPs could be recruited quicker. This is only one of the ways in which we’re working hard to rebuild general practice and ensure everyone can regularly see their family doctor if they want to.
We’re tackling the 8am rush by enabling more patients to book online – helping surgeries prioritise patients and freeing up the phones for those who need them. We’re cutting unnecessary paperwork for GPs, freeing them up to give more of their time to patients. Our rebuild of GP services is part of our wider shift to move care from hospitals to communities as we deliver investment and reform through our Plan for Change.
We’ve already provided an extra £889 million for general practice over this financial year so more patients can get the care they need, closer to home. Turning around our broken NHS is not an easy task but we are not shying away from the challenge and we are determined to improve things for patients. We’ve rolled up our sleeves, and we’re cutting through the bureaucracy.
By delivering on our ambitions, including providing 1,500 more GPs, we will make it easier for every patient to hear those words – ‘the doctor will see you now’.