Labour

Labour publishes its second NHS Check Report

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, following the publication of Labour’s second NHS Check Report today, said:

“David Cameron ruthlessly used the NHS before the election to pose as a different kind of Tory and made a series of promises to get into Downing Street – but day by day his words appear increasingly hollow.

“The Prime Minister promised patients would be able to get evening appointments with their GP, but our figures show things are heading in the opposite direction – with almost five hundred more surgeries now shutting earlier.

“Today NHS Check revealed a major fall in the number of GPs surgeries offering evening and weekend appointments – leaving patients unable to see their GP at a convenient time and with some people waiting up to three weeks for an appointment.

“The Government’s calamitous decision to reorganise the NHS has taken eyes off the ball and allowed the system to drift. Its decision to stop the national monitoring of GP opening hours sent out the wrong signal to the NHS and now patients are paying the price.

“As NHS Walk-in Centres close and surgeries shut their doors earlier, worried patients are left with no alternative but to turn to A&E. Now A&E units up and down the country are now reaching breaking point – with a million extra visitors in the last year, thousands of nursing jobs axed and twice as many patients left waiting on trolleys in corridors.

“This Prime Minister needs to get a grip on the NHS and focus on restoring order in our A&Es, bring back longer surgery opening hours and halt the closure of Walk-in Centres pending an urgent review.”

Click here to download the full report