Lib Dems promise Stratford voters the right to see a GP within a week

Stratford-on-Avon voters will be able to see their GP within 24 hours if in urgent need, or otherwise within a week, the Liberal Democrats have promised as part of a five-year plan to overhaul primary care.

For many Stratford voters, the pledge would more than halve the time they waited to see their GP last year. In 2023 over half a million appointments in Coventry and Warwickshire took longer than two weeks to happen.

Stratford-on-Avon’s Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate Manuela Perteghella said that every single patient would have the right to see their GP within seven days under the Liberal Democrat plan.

“This Conservative government has abandoned local health services and left patients crying out for a fair deal,” she insisted. “Under our plans, patients will no longer be left waiting for an appointment and risk their conditions getting worse.”

Last year over 650,000 appointments took more than two weeks in the Coventry and Warwickshire area, more than a tenth of all appointments. A significant proportion – over 170,000 – took longer than a month.

“This Conservative government has driven our area’s local health services into the ground. Thousands of patients in Warwickshire are facing agonisingly long waits, often in terrible pain whilst waiting to see their GP,” she said.

“The Conservative party have proven themselves totally unfit to run our NHS. They have abandoned local health services and it is patients bearing the brunt of their neglect.

“It should not be too much to ask for patients to be able to see their GP when they need to. That is why the Liberal Democrats are committed to a fair deal for this community’s patients and legal right to see their GP within a week.”

Manuela said her party would deliver the plan by:

• Increasing the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 8,000, half by boosting recruitment and half from retaining more experienced GPs.
• Freeing up GPs’ time by giving more prescribing rights and public health advisory services to qualified pharmacists, nurse practitioners and paramedics.
• Introducing a universal 24/7 GP booking system.
• Removing top-down bureaucracy to let GP practices hire the staff they need and invest in training.