Labour vows to invest in workforce to improve GP access and cut waiting times

Improving access to GPs and slashing NHS waiting times will be key priorities for a Labour government if it wins the next general election, the party’s shadow health secretary has said.

In a speech to the party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Wednesday 28 September, Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting also took aim at what he described as the Conservatives’ “mismanagement of the NHS.”

“It is an absolute disgrace,” he said. “We have the highest NHS waiting lists in history, people unable to see their GP, heart attack and stroke patients left waiting longer than an hour for an ambulance when every second counts.”

He promised that Labour would set loftier ambitions than the Conservatives on GP access, following the government’s recent pledge that all patients will be given a GP appointment within two weeks.1

“Patients deserve better than a two week wait to see a GP,” he said. “I have higher standards for patients.

“Labour will give all patients the ability to book online, the opportunity to self-refer to specialist services where appropriate, and a wider range of choice so that we can choose whether we want to see someone face-to-face, on the phone, or by a video link.

“The days of waiting on the phone at 8 am to book an appointment with your GP will be over and we will bring back the family doctor.”

Describing himself as a “Labour moderniser,” Streeting said Labour would agree a new 10 year plan with the NHS designed to “shift the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community.” The plan would include:

• - Doubling the number of medical school places to 15 000 a year

• - Doubling the number of district nurses qualifying each year

• - Training 5000 new health visitors a year

• - Creating 10 000 more nursing and midwifery clinical placements each year

• - A long term workforce plan for the NHS, with independent workforce projections, new career paths into the NHS, and new types of health and care professionals

“Without a workforce plan, the Conservatives have no plan for the NHS,” Streeting said.

“Everything else they announce is a sticking plaster that fails to tackle the root cause of the crisis. Politics is about choices. Labour believes the country needs doctors and nurses more than the richest need a tax cut.”

Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said, “GP access is important, but it is only a starting point to ensuring our patients receive the safe, personalised, and appropriate care they need. What we really need to address are the huge workload and workforce pressures that are the real reason patients are facing such long waits to see a GP.

“The college has always said that, post-pandemic, patients should be able to access GP care and services in a variety of ways depending on their health needs and preferences. This is already happening. Many patients will prefer to see their GP in person, but many also find remote consulting convenient and effective, and we know that good, safe, and appropriate care can be delivered remotely.”