‘Fix this crisis,’ party conference tells government, warning it must sufficiently fund NHS to fulfill commitments to deliver this winter
More people than ever are waiting at least four weeks to see a GP, analysis shows.
There were 10.3 million people waiting for a GP appointment for at least 28 days in the first seven months of this year.
According to research by the Liberal Democrats, this represents an increase of a fifth from the equivalent period in 2023.
A record 17.6 million waits for appointments were recorded last year, with Sir Ed Davey’s party forecasting that the final total for this year will be even greater.
‘Tories broke NHS so badly’
The Liberal Democrat leader said: “Everyone should be able to see a doctor when they need one, but the Conservative Party broke the NHS so badly that millions of people are waiting weeks for an appointment.
“Fixing the GP crisis is critical to saving our NHS. If people can get seen quicker, fewer will end up in hospital in the first place.
“That’s better for them, better for the NHS and better for taxpayers.”
The Liberal Democrats want everyone to have a right to see a GP within seven days, or 24 hours if it is urgent.
They are also pressuring Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, to inject more money into the NHS at the Budget next month in order to fund more appointments and fix social care.
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said that family doctors worked “incredibly hard” and delivered almost 32 million appointments in July.
“The reality is that we don’t have enough GPs to deliver care to the increasing numbers of patients who need it, especially as they have increasingly complex health needs,” she said.
However, Prof Hawthorne criticised the Lib Dem proposals to introduce “arbitrary targets”, claiming this would only worsen the situation in practice.
Ruth Rankine, director of primary care at the NHS Confederation, said the wait times data showed her sector was “under enormous pressure”.
Echoing Liberal Democrat calls for more cash, she said: “Ahead of winter, the Government must address the estimated gap between what the NHS is committed to do this year and what funding services have to deliver it.
“A failure to do that will lead to a crisis and make it more difficult for people to be seen in primary care.”
In her speech at the annual Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton on Monday, Daisy Cooper, the party’s health spokesman, will insist that the NHS is their “top priority”.
Ms Cooper is expected to say: “As liberals, we don’t blindly defend the NHS as an institution. We defend it because it’s an idea, and because of its founding principles…
“The NHS was a liberal idea, driven forward by Labour. So Wes [Streeting], if you’re listening – take up our ideas, and put forward your own, and if we support them we’ll back you.
“But if you don’t act with the right level of ambition, we’ll hold your feet to the fire.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Ms Cooper said Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms, which her party introduced while in coalition with the Conservatives, were a “mistake”.
The changes overseen by Mr Lansley, a former Tory health secretary, created NHS England to run the health service and replaced primary care trusts with GP-led clinical groups.
“At the time, the Liberal Democrats were fighting tooth and nail within the coalition to protect the day-to-day spending on health and education on a real-terms basis,” Ms Cooper said.
She accused the Conservatives of pushing the NHS “on to its knees” during their time in office, citing nurses wearing bin bags as personal protective equipment during the pandemic.
‘Committed to extra 1,000 GPs’
A Department of Health spokesman said: “The NHS is broken. These findings show how much general practice has been neglected.
“This government will fix this by shifting the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community.
“We have committed to hiring an extra 1,000 GPs into the NHS by the end of this year.
“In addition, we have provided a further £311 million towards GP contract funding in 2024-25 – an uplift of 7.4 per cent.
“We will also ensure that GPs have the resources they need to offer patients the highest quality care.”
Government sources said more than 1,000 newly-qualified GPs will be recruited by cutting red tape that prevents surgeries hiring doctors.
