The Conservatives have promised an extra 50m GP appointments a year and an extra 6,000 GPs by 2024/25 – just over a year after dropping the timescale for a failed pledge to recruit an extra 5,000 GPs.
Dr Rinesh Parmar, DAUK Chair said:
“General Practitioners are the frontline of our NHS and have faced unpresented pressure in recent years. ‘Empty promises’ to win over the electorate do nothing for the millions of patients who depend on GP services and are unable to access them due to the recruitment and retention crisis. All we have seen are pie in the sky promises from a government that has proven its inability to deliver its 2015 commitment of recruiting an extra 5,000 GPs. As GP numbers are falling, we need more than just election sound bites and platitudes about increasing GPs but a commitment to invest in working conditions and retention of our existing GPs who have been neglected for the last decade.
Our manifesto: Election 2019 – Key Priorities for our NHS outlines key policy commitments we would like to see all political parties make. https://www.dauk.org/s/Election-2019-Key-Priorities-for-the-NHS-DAUK.pdf
The edited letter reads:
You report that “Tories make more ‘empty promises’ on extra GPs” (News, last week). These will do nothing for the millions of patients who are unable to access their GP due to the recruitment and retention crisis. This is a government that has proven its inability to deliver on its 2015 commitment of recruiting an extra 5,000 GPs.
As GP numbers are falling, we need more than just election sound bites — we need a commitment to invest in the working conditions and retention of our existing GPs, who have been neglected for the last decade.
