Foord backs move to give patients in Devon right to see a GP within a week

The Liberal Democrats have announced a five-year scheme to ensure patients in Devon can see a GP within a week, or 24-hours if in urgent need, will be at the heart of their General Election manifesto.

Last year there were more than 1.7 million appointments that took over two weeks in Devon, equating to almost one-fifth of appointments. This included a staggering 554,027 which took longer than a month, 6.2% of all appointments.

The number of long waits in Devon has been getting worse. In 2022, there were 1,389,593 that involved a wait of two weeks, 16.8% of all appointments. Last year this shot up drastically to 1,707,985 or 19.2% of all appointments. 

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

The party will deliver this 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.

Richard Foord, Liberal Democrat candidate for Honiton & Sidmouth, has said that the Conservative government had “abandoned local health services” and called for a “fair deal for patients”. 

Richard Foord said:

“Under this Conservative government thousands of patients across Mid and East Devon are now facing agonisingly long waits, sometimes in terrible pain, to see their GP. This in spite of the hardwork of our GPs and surgery staff - who are doing all they can with limited resources.

“The Conservative party have proven themselves totally unfit to manage our NHS properly. They have abandoned local frontline health and social care, allowing services to wither away while patients and our selfless staff bear the brunt of their neglect.

“It should not be too much to ask for you to be able to see your GP when you need to, instead of having to sit by the phone every morning and pray you are lucky in getting through to claim one of the dwindling number of available appointments.

"Liberal Democrats would give you the ability to see a GP within a week by boosting the number of GPs and making booking an appointment easier. This will ensure that we get the fair deal we deserve and help address medical problems before they get worse.”