Posted by Hari on Tuesday, September 30, 2014 with No comments | Labels: budget cuts, Cameron, elections, NHS
SOURCE GUARDIAN: GP
access seven days a week by 2020 ‘guaranteed’ under Tories – Cameron
Access to a GP seven days a week by 2020 would be guaranteed
under a Tory government, David Cameron will announce on Tuesday, backing the
measure with a £100m fund. Labour has made a separate commitment to guarantee
GP access within 48 hours. The prime minister’s announcement is designed to
give a clear commitment that all NHS patients would be able to see their GP
between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week. The government in April launched a
seven-day-a-week-access pilot scheme costing £50m and covering 7.5 million
patients in 1,195 practices. An additional £100m wave of access pilots is to be
launched in 2015-16, culminating in a nationwide scheme costing £400m over the
next five years. The promise, which is due to be announced by David Cameron in
a round of broadcast interviews, is the Conservatives’ response to Ed
Miliband’s claim that only Labour could save the NHS from privatisation and
cuts. Cameron said: “People need to be able to see their GP at a time that
suits them and their family. We will also support thousands more GP practices
to stay open longer – giving millions of patients better access to their
doctor. This is only possible because we have taken difficult decisions to
reduce inefficient and ineffective spending elsewhere as part of our long-term
economic plan. You cannot fund the NHS if you don’t have a healthy growing
economy.”
SOURCE TELEGRAPH: GPs'
leader says waiting times are a national disgrace
Increasingly unacceptable waits for an appointment risk
illnesses not being detected rapidly enough and chances of treating them
quickly being missed, said Dr Maureen Baker, chairman of the Royal College of
GPs. She spoke out as NHS figures revealed that one in six patients had to wait
at least a week before they see a GP or practice nurse. A total of 58.9 million
patients in England will have waited for a consultation for a week or more by
the end of 2014, up almost 50 per cent from the 40m who waited that long in
2013. In mid 2011 the proportion of patients waiting at least a week was 13 per
cent, rising to 14 per cent by the end of 2013 then reached 15 per cent in mid
2013 and then 16 per cent in July, according to the GP patient surveys. “Even
more worrying is that we have no way of finding out how many patients decide
not to see treatment because they cannot get an appointment which means we
might be missing opportunities of detecting illnesses at an early stage or
preventing them happening,” said Dr Baker.
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