News from The Labour Party

“Tories’ unfair GP plans do nothing for patients” – Johnson

Alan Johnson MP, Labour’s Health Secretary, recently warned of the damage that would be dealt to hard-working families by David Cameron’s plan to scrap longer opening hours at GP surgeries.

Mr Johnson was speaking just after a Labour election campaign visit to the Somerset Family Practice in Ealing, West London, where he met patients and doctors to highlight the choice at the polls between real help from Labour and Tory plans to cut services at the worst possible time.

As part of a deal between the Labour Government and the British Medical Association, the GP practice offers extended opening hours. In recent years the practice’s facilities have benefited from a comprehensive refurbishment.

Alan Johnson said:

“Next Thursday voters have a choice between real help from Labour or David Cameron’s plans to cut services at the worst possible time. David Cameron’s plan to scrap Labour’s deal with doctors and let GPs go back to setting their own hours would mean that surgeries would no longer have to open at times convenient to patients.

“Thanks to Labour, nearly three quarters of GP practices now offer extended opening hours, compared to just 12 per cent last April. That means that it’s now easier for hard-working families, here in Ealing and across the country, to see their doctor at a time convenient to them.

“Labour is building a better, fairer NHS which gives real help to people when they need it. As I heard today from the doctors and patients at the Somerset Family Practice, the NHS’s reformed opening hours and improved facilities are making a real difference to people’s lives.

“The Conservatives’ unfair plans would do nothing for patients. David Cameron needs to come clean and to tell patients which GPs would stop offering weekend and evening opening under his unfair plans.”

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