Daisy Cooper, MP for St Albans, has called for urgent investment to boost GP numbers. This comes as House of Commons Library research, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, has revealed that the number of four-week waits for a GP appointment in the Herts Valleys area, which includes the areas of Dacorum, Hertsmere, St Albans, Three Rivers and Watford, has already reached 53,127 this year (from January 2024 to June 2024).
Daisy has said these figures reveal “how the Conservatives have broken Hertfordshire’s health services.”
The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to make the autumn Budget an “Budget to Save our NHS and Care” with an increase in day-to-day spending to boost GP numbers and ensure people can get an appointment when they need one.
This comes after the report by Lord Darzi, released on 12 September 2024, revealed that the UK has almost 16 per cent fewer fully qualified GPs than other high-income countries, relative to our population.
As the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Health and Social Care at the time, Daisy Cooper MP responded to this report in Parliament. She challenged the government to take up Liberal Democrat plans to increase funding for GP services, to help shift the focus of health services from treatment to prevention on the basis that “prevention is better than cure.”
The Liberal Democrats want to give everyone the legal right to a GP appointment within a week or 24 hours if in urgent need, which would be delivered by boosting GP numbers by 8,000.
Commenting on this crisis in GP services, Daisy Cooper, MP for St Albans said:
“The Conservatives have wrought complete devastation on our health services. They’ve gutted primary care – leaving people unable to see a GP, dentist or mental health expert when they need to – forcing people to seek help in A&E, which is worse for health outcomes and worse for the tax-payer.
“From speaking to GPs and their staff here in St Albans and around the country, it’s clear that whilst GPs and their teams are seeing more patients than ever before, they are still incredibly stretched.
“Not only are people living longer with multiple health conditions requiring many more scheduled follow up appointments, but GPs are also caring for patients on long NHS waiting lists as their conditions deteriorate.
“We Liberal Democrats are calling for the Labour government’s Autumn Budget to be a Budget to Save our NHS and Care. This must include an increase in day-to-day spending on health so we can recruit and retain the 8,000 GPs we need to ensure patients get timely support on their high street rather than expensive treatment in a hospital, and borrowing capital funds to fix our crumbling hospitals and GP surgeries.”