Lib Dems announce five year plan to give patients in Liverpool right to see a GP within a week

• A five year plan to give patients in Liverpool a right to see their GP within a week or 24-hours if in urgent need will be in the Liberal Democrat General Election manifesto the party has today announced
• Last year 299,346 appointments in Liverpool took longer than two weeks to happen, under the Liberal Democrats plans every single patient will have the right to see their GP in seven days
• Liverpool’s Liberal Democrats have said that this Conservative government had “abandoned local health services” and called for a “fair deal for this community’s patients”

The Liberal Democrats have yesterday (24th May) announced that their five year plan to give patients in Liverpool a legal right to see a GP within a week or 24-hours if in urgent need will be in their General Election manifesto.

Last year there were 299,346 appointments that took over two weeks in Liverpool, equating to 9.9% of appointments. This included a staggering 64,478 which took longer than a month, 2.1% of all appointments.

The number of disturbingly long waits in Liverpool has been getting worse. In 2022, there were 249,672 over two weeks, or 8.5% of all appointments. Last year this shot up drastically to 299,346 or 9.9% of all appointments. 

The Liberal Democrats have said that under their plans, patients will no longer be left waiting for an appointment and risk their conditions getting worse.

The party will 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 practices hire the staff they need and invest in training.
• Liverpool’s Liberal Democrats said that this Conservative government had “abandoned local health services” and called for a “fair deal for this community's patients”. 

Liberal Democrat Candidate for Liverpool Garston, John Hyland said:

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

“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 have committed to a fair deal for this community’s patients and legal right to see a GP within a week.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Details: on the Liberal Democrats plan for patients to have a legal right to see a GP within seven days or 24-hours if in urgent need:

Enshrine a new right in the NHS constitution to see a GP or the most appropriate practice staff member within seven days, or within 24 hours.

Increase the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 8,000, half by boosting recruitment and half from retaining more experienced GPs:

Increasing training places for GPs.

Making it more attractive for junior doctors to become GPs once they’ve been trained, including career development and training programmes.

Retain experienced GPs and help them stay in the profession.

Launching a scheme to encourage GPs and nurses who’ve left the NHS to return.

Give everyone 70+ and everyone with long-term health conditions access to a named GP.

Free up GPs’ time by giving more prescribing rights and public health advisory services to qualified pharmacists, nurse practitioners and paramedics.

Introduce a universal 24/7 GP booking system.

Remove top-down bureaucracy to let practices hire the staff they need and invest in training.

The data from the House of Commons Library can be found here. The NHS data measures the time between when the appointment was booked and when it took place. 

Source: This data based on analysis of the underlying data from NHS Digital’s Appointments in General Practice December 2023 publication. 

King’s Fund - Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2023 can be found here.

Notes from the Commons Library

This data measures the time between booking and the appointment taking place. This includes cases where the patient requested a particular date, so it is not a direct measure of “waiting times”.

The data includes all appointments in general practice (including those with e.g. nurses or other staff).

The overall increase in the number of GP appointments in England is an important background context for the data. The overall number of appointments in England was nearly 20 million higher in 2023 than in 2022 (+6%). Column Q in the main data table shows the percentage increase for each sub-ICB location.

The percentages exclude the small number of appointments for which the time between booking and appointment is not known.