Increase of 22% in month-long waits for GP appointments unacceptable - say Medway Liberal Democrats

Kent and Medway recorded the highest month-long waits of anywhere in England with 781,000, up more than a fifth on 2023’s figure of 642,000 as revealed by the House of Commons Library research team, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to give patients a legal right to see their GP within seven days or 24 hours if in urgent need. This could be done by boosting GP numbers by 8,000. The previous Conservative government pledged to boost GP numbers by 6,000 over the course of the Parliament but fell woefully short of their promise as NHS waiting lists ballooned to a record 7.7 million.

Medway Liberal Democrat spokesperson, John Castle said: “These figures reveal a stark postcode lottery that is leaving people in vast swathes of the county without the care they deserve. Many, who are already in pain are being forced into anxiety-inducing waits that only add to their suffering and leave them at risk of not getting the treatment they need in time.

Time and again the Conservatives broke their promises to patients and ran our local health services into the ground but it is now the Labour government not showing nearly enough ambition to break this cycle of misery. If we are going to give communities the local health care that they need, we have to go further and faster. That means giving patients a legal right to see their GP within a week by ensuring there are 8,000 more GPs. Only then will we be able to rebuild our NHS and get patients the care they deserve.”

ENDS